Another case of ‘hide the diaper head.’
I think Iran has the airplane and will reveal 200 hostages when they ‘need 200 hostages’ for leverage.
I assumed that the passengers were killed right away. I figured that it would be easier to take them out in their seats by depressurizing the cabin, otherwise the passengers might get unruly during such a long flight to Pakistan. I don't think that 2 or 3 passengers, plus the pilots, could keep 200 people from trying to retake the plane these days.
Keeping them in their seats, and then housing them in Pakistan until needed for leverage, was just too much logistics, in my mind, for people already intent on mass murder with an airplane bomb.
-PJ