If Pakistan is indeed interested in normalcy, releasing Nachiketa is the least it can do. The very least, because it also ought to stop providing military support to the infiltrators. Under international law, Nachiketa is in illegal detention. It is not enough for Pakistan to treat him according to the Geneva Convention, which is applicable only to situations where at least one of the nations involved recognises the existence ofa state of war.

Neither Pakistan nor India declare themselves to be in that situation. They are, at most, adversaries, not enemies. For Pakistan to hold a prisoner of war in the absence of a war fairly boggles the mind. Nachiketa's legal standing is no different from that of Matthias Rust, the young German who landed his propeller plane in Moscow's Red Square.

Rust was released as soon as Moscow got over its embarrassment at having its crucial western defences breached by a weekend pilot. But Pakistan's image has not exactly suffered at Nachiketa's hands. On the contrary, it is using his images in its propaganda war, parading him like a captive at a Caesar's triumph. Here, says the TV camera panning across his flight uniform, is the flower of the enemy's youth. Not in chains, but in bondage nevertheless. Freely seen but never heard. The camera is the information age's equivalent of the peephole in the door of a solitary cell.

If a war is not on, then all that Nachiketa is guilty of is being an illegalalien. People who cross international borders -- or lines of control -- without the proper papers are supposed to be deported, not put away in the cooler. Islamabad's obdurate insistence on holding Nachiketa as a trophy is indecent. And inexplicable, because it has much to gain by releasing him.

The arrest of Najam Sethi, editor of The Friday Times, last month convinced all major Western institutions, from the media to the World Bank, that there was something rotten about the state of Pakistan. In bad odour since then, it has not been able to garner support from any quarter for the intrusion in Kargil. Even the US and the UK, the cheerleaders of international interventionism, have shown no inclination to take sides on the issue.

Given the current climate of opinion, even if they were so inclined, they would have to side with India. Right now, Pakistan could use a show of humanity, a gesture that would assure the world that it is not yet beyond the pale. The release of Nachiketa would not only setthe stage for meaningful bilateral talks in Delhi, but would also help redeem Pakistan in the eyes of the international community.