Unease after India frees militants for hostages

The relief felt in India at the safe return of 160 hostages last Friday, eight days after an Indian Airlines jetliner was seized by Islamic hijackers, is tempered by widespread unease that the trade-off - India freed three Kashmiri militants in exchange - has damaged the country's interests and international prestige.

While officials concede that India had no other choice but to release the militants in return for the hostages, they also admit that the hijackers managed to browbeat the Hindu nationalist-led coalition and undermine the fight against Islamist terrorism.

The Indian Airlines A-300 Airbus was hijacked by five armed men en route from Kathmandu to Delhi on Christmas Eve. The aircraft was diverted to Dubai, where one murdered hostage was dumped. It continued to Kandahar, a stronghold of the Taliban militia that controls most of Afghanistan.

Complex week-long negotiations ensued, in which the hijackers at one point demanded the release of 35 Kashmiri Muslim militants and $200 million, before settling for the release of three of their comrades. When these men arrived at the aircraft on New Year's Eve, they and the hijackers fled to an unknown destination by jeep.

"At every stage in the sordid affair, the government seems to have squandered some crucial bargaining space and time while investing far too much in the Taliban's professions of good faith," a conservative Hindi paper declared in a front-page editorial at the weekend. Many of the rescued hostages said the Indian government did not react at all for 72 hours after the hijacking.

Members of India's National Security Council Advisory Board said the satisfaction over the hostages return was overshadowed by the harsh reality that Delhi had exposed itself as a soft target for further terrorist attacks.

"The only way the government can redeem itself now is by launching an all-out war against terrorism which demonstrates that what happened in Kandahar was only a tactical retreat," said Mr Bramha Chellaney, a member of the board.

Security officials fighting the decade-old civil war in Kashmir, in which 25,000 people have died, said they were handicapped by the lack of any government policy or long-term strategy in dealing with terrorism in the state. "The fresh offensive launched by Pakistan in Kashmir's `proxy war' has completely demoralised the over-extended Indian security forces," one security official said. He also feared an increase in terrorist operations in Kashmir after the government's capitulation to the hijackers.

AFP adds from New Delhi:

India has clear evidence Pakistan was involved in the hijacking, the National Security Adviser, Mr Brajesh Mishra, said yesterday. "We have clear evidence to prove Pakistan's involvement . . . the Pakistani establishment is certainly responsible for this," Mr Mishra said.

He claimed to "have the names of all the hijackers who are Pakistani nationals" and added that "the list of militants they wanted to be released contained [a] majority of Pakistani nationals."