Editorial
Relieved, But Not Quite
WE share the sense of relief felt worldwide at the resolution of the eight-day-long air hijack crisis in Kandahar. That the 155 passengers of the ill-fated Indian aircraft made it home safely must have been a New Year gift to their near and dear ones. It is one of those hijack incidents that came to an end with a minimum loss of life; but then how much we wish the newly-wed passenger who was knived to death had not left his young wife widowed. That said, we would like to term the denouement as a gift coming on the millennium eve in the sense that the hijack poignantly brought to the fore the universality of humanitarian concern and sympathy for the passengers and crew, regardless of political and ideological beliefs across the board.
The Talebans have admittedly shown maturity in handling the crisis on their soil. Apart from the cooperation they extended to the Indian government and the UN together with the life support system they kept functional for the people in captivity, even in terms of taking forward the negotiations and bringing the matter to a close the Talebans did play a crucial role. For instance, they were instrumental in persuading the hijackers to drop the demands for ransom money worth US$20 crore dollars and return of a buried Kashmiri militant's dead body after exhumation. They reportedly pinned down the hijackers on the observation such demands amounted to 'banditry'. All this in spite of the fact the Taleban do not have diplomatic relations with India and are yet to be politically recognised by most governments.
The incidence of air hijacking has been globally on the rise, but it seems that regional flights may have become quite vulnerable to it. It is another wake up call for the Indian Airlines, or for that matter other airlines of South Asian countries and their airports to guard against sneaking of arms and explosives into an aircraft. And, in the event that a hijack has actually taken place, it is always advisable to begin the process of negotiations sooner than later to avert complications.
Since there is always a trade-off to end a hijacking drama and innocent passengers have to take the brunt of it all, air travel in no way should be allowed to remain even slightly vulnerable to the tyranny of terrorism in the mid-air.
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