03-29-2008, 08:13 PM
<!--QuoteBegin-LSrini+-->QUOTE(LSrini)<!--QuoteEBegin-->This is news to me. I thought the exchange was done by the entire nda govt either due to public opinion about saving indian lives or some high ranking foreign official being one of the hostages.<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
The hijackers had conveyed to the Indian government that if their demands were not met then the airplane would be taken into the sky and blown off, naturally killing all indians onboard. Now this threat may seem silly but when we recall the 9/11 incident then the seriousness of the situation can very well understood.
Another important issue that led to the release of the 3 terrorists was the attitude of the taliban. The taliban had surrounded the plane in kandhar with their men positioning their rocket launchers and Ak-47 towards the plane in an offensive posture. This clearly showed that taliban were with the hijackers and not interested in the safety of the hostages. This made the job of the government negotiators more difficult since they had to not only handle the hijackers but also these taliban jehadis.
The taliban rule was not recognised by India or most of the world. Only saudi arabia and pakistan recognised it. This led to more complications in the negotiations as taliban were not believing that Indians would fulfill their promise of releasing the hostages. They thought some kind of military action was being planned with plane carrying the to-be released terrorists instead carrying military personnel. Recall the german operation magic fire.
To prevent this type of rescue attempt the Taliban clearly stated to the Indian government that only 1 airplane would be allowed into their airspace which had to carry the to-be released terrorists as the well as the Foreign minister Jaswant Singh to oversee the handover.
There was a clear cut warning that if another plane was found to have been intruding into Taliban controlled afghan airspace it would be shot down by captured soviet anti-craft guns and the US supplied stinger missiles.
Now we can very well see that if the course of action taken then was not followed then today we would be mourning the death of the Indian hostages.
The hijackers had conveyed to the Indian government that if their demands were not met then the airplane would be taken into the sky and blown off, naturally killing all indians onboard. Now this threat may seem silly but when we recall the 9/11 incident then the seriousness of the situation can very well understood.
Another important issue that led to the release of the 3 terrorists was the attitude of the taliban. The taliban had surrounded the plane in kandhar with their men positioning their rocket launchers and Ak-47 towards the plane in an offensive posture. This clearly showed that taliban were with the hijackers and not interested in the safety of the hostages. This made the job of the government negotiators more difficult since they had to not only handle the hijackers but also these taliban jehadis.
The taliban rule was not recognised by India or most of the world. Only saudi arabia and pakistan recognised it. This led to more complications in the negotiations as taliban were not believing that Indians would fulfill their promise of releasing the hostages. They thought some kind of military action was being planned with plane carrying the to-be released terrorists instead carrying military personnel. Recall the german operation magic fire.
To prevent this type of rescue attempt the Taliban clearly stated to the Indian government that only 1 airplane would be allowed into their airspace which had to carry the to-be released terrorists as the well as the Foreign minister Jaswant Singh to oversee the handover.
There was a clear cut warning that if another plane was found to have been intruding into Taliban controlled afghan airspace it would be shot down by captured soviet anti-craft guns and the US supplied stinger missiles.
Now we can very well see that if the course of action taken then was not followed then today we would be mourning the death of the Indian hostages.