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The hijacking, another Kargil?

Ramadan is the holiest month among the Muslims. Prophet Mohammed is said to have received his first revelations then. Not only must Muslims refrain during this period from all food and drink between dawn and dusk but they must also not commit any unworthy act. Still this is the month when some Muslim militants hijacked an Indian plane with 189 passengers on board.

There has not been a word of condemnation by the Islamic Republic of Pakistan where the plane was taken first. Foreign Minister Abdus Sattar merely shrugged his shoulders and paid little heed to the religious tenet that "man's relationship with God is not unrelated to man's relationship with man."

It is, however, more than a coincidence that Sattar's remark tallied with that of the hijackers's subsequent demand. He said that it was up to the Government of India to establish contacts with the hijackers and save the lives of passengers. The hijackers, after reaching their sanctuary in Kandahar, said the same thing: they wanted to talk only to the Government of India. They rejected the UN's good offices to act as their communicate channel for their demand and to bring back New Delhi's reaction.

Sattar has abused the Indian media. It is nothing surprising. He was not popular with the press even when he served twice as Pakistan's high commissioner in New Delhi. He wears the anti-Indian bias on his sleeve. As expected from a prejudiced person, he suspected an Indian 'trap.' He should know that no country plays with the lives of its nationals to put another country in the wrong.

In the month of Ramadan, Sattar, a devout Muslim as he is, should have expressed anger over the act of the hijackers and reminded them of Allah's punishment against "those who go astray," as the Koran says. Instead, he poured venom against India. Human lives and human rights were involved, even though Sattar does not like this country. The Taleban, although Pakistan's creature, behaved better and said its conscience did not allow it to let the innocent people get killed.

It is still a matter of inquiry how the hijackers got into the Indian Airlines plane. Apparently, they sneaked into it without going through the security. In a note sent to the home ministry, the airlines's managing director, Aivalli Veeramma, has said "no passenger connected from the Pakistan International Airlines to the Indian Airlines on the date" (December 24). This contradicts Foreign Minister Jaswant Singh, who said the hijackers left the PIA flight and boarded the IA flight.

Still, two things are intriguing. One, four of the six hijackers are Pakistani nationals. Two -- and this heightens the suspicion of Islamabad's hand -- is the visit by Mohammed A Chemma, the first secretary at the Pakistan embassy at Kathmandu to the airport in his embassy car on the day of the hijacking. He reportedly visited the arrival and departure lounges. Chemma is said to have been reportedly accused by the Nepali police chief of involvement in handing over 30 kilograms of RDX to a Sikh militant in 1998.

Islamabad's mere denial of involvement may not do. After New Delhi's suspicion of Pakistan's hand, it is incumbent upon General Musharraf's government to appoint a Pakistani Supreme Court judge to look into the charges of Islamabad's complicity. No amount of attacks on India, as Sattar is doing, can cover up the matter. The inquiry is necessary also from another angle. The Taleban government in Kabul has captured 90 per cent of Afghanistan territory through men and arms supplied by Islamabad. And Pakistan was the first country which gave immediate recognition to the Taleban government.

Islamabad could have put pressure on Kabul if it had the safety of some 150 men, women and children uppermost in its mind. Instead, it took hours to clear the relief AAirbus to fly over Pakistan airspace to reach Kandahar. PTV began maligning New Delhi. Telephone lines of the Indian embassy were cut off to stall any contact with the outside world. All this strengthens suspicion against Islamabad.

The Taleban is so indebted to Islamabad that even the slightest hint from it would have sent them scurrying to rescuing the passengers. The whole operation may have been planned by the two, Islamabad and Kabul. And it is quite plausible that after giving shivers to India, Pakistan may have told the Taleban to get whatever mileage they could from the incident. "It is the doing of Pakistan's Inter Services Intelligence," Khalili has said. He represents Afghanistan in Delhi since he belongs to the ousted government of President Rabbani. He was frank enough to tell a television network that such a hijacking was not possible without the "ISI men planning and executing it."

What stands out clearly is that the military junta at Islamabad wants to keep the focus of the people of Pakistan on one anti-Indian adventure or the other. It seems to be the only thing which is silencing murmurs against the military rule. Hostility against India is what provides the country its ethos. In such an atmosphere, there is little scope for ventilation of disillusionment against Musharraf for not delivering the goods. He was the author of the Kargil tragedy. He may have also blessed the hijacking -- another tragedy. This may be his way of erasing the humiliation he suffered at Kargil.

Pakistan is, however, playing with fire. First Kargil and then the hijacking -- everything cannot be a one-way traffic. India can retaliate too. It is difficult even to imagine what can happen. The confrontation in the past has only adversely affected the plight of the common man. It may be worse this time.

Kashmir remains an unsettled problem. The Simla Agreement and the Lahore process have conciliated it. Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee has also offered to hold talks on Kashmir. But no dialogue can take place at gun point. Normal conditions are a pre-requisite to the talks. If Islamabad continues to indulge in operations like Kargil and hijacking, there is no possibility of even a semblance of normalcy. The situation is bound to deteriorate further if the Pakistan-aided groups do not give up such attacks as on the military headquarters and on the headquarters of the Special Operations Group, comprising the Kashmir police.

Pakistan should seriously ponder over what its interference through ISI or otherwise would lead to. Since Sattar is the most experienced and mature person in the military set-up, his responsibility is many times more than that of his other colleagues in the government. True, his hatred for India gets better of him. But he has the foreign service training and experience to visualise the scenario beyond the short-lived publicity. With the two countries possessing nuclear weapons, there is no alternative to peace.

That the world leaders have been silent over the hijacking is all the more reason to realise that the Third World has no place in their scheme of things, except for selling goods and dumping what their own countries reject. They are not interested in human rights in this part of the world. Their reaction is political. We have to sort out our problem between ourselves.

One nostalgically recalls civilian rule in Pakistan. It is not even thinkable that a democratic government, however, hostile to India, would have indulged in the methods of this military junta. It says it wants to have talks with India. But this is no way. The Musharraf government will have to prove its credentials before New Delhi can sit with it across the table. At present, Islamabad is doing just the opposite.

Kuldip Nayar