India appreciates Taliban's role in hijacking drama

India appreciates Taliban's role in hijacking drama
JYOTI MALHOTRA

NEW DELHI, DEC 28: India went on record on Tuesday to state its appreciation of the Taliban's role in the hijacking drama in Kandahar, even as the world finally rose from its Christmas festivities to strongly condemn the incident, describing it as a ``criminal and terrorist act''.

External Affairs Minister Jaswant Singh told reporters this afternoon that he was ``gratified to report that the Taliban is fully cooperating with the relief team and the negotiating team'' that New Delhi had sent to Afghanistan yesterday.

While the team had held ``direct talks'' with Taliban foreign minister Abdul Wakil Muttawakil as well as the Taliban corps commander in Kandahar, Singh said, the senior leadership of the Islamic regime had reiterated its warning to the hijackers that its commandoes would storm the aircraft if any passenger was harmed.

But even as Singh was voicing his faith in the Taliban in the Capital, Muttawakil was telling journalists in Kandahar that his government had done its best to protect thehostages and that India had delayed sending a team to talk to the hijackers. It was now up to New Delhi to resolve the crisis, he said. ``We have done our best to protect the passengers and meet our moral obligations,'' he said, indicating as well that UN representative Erik de Mul had also failed in his duty by limiting his brief to humanitarian assistance alone.

It is not known whether Muttawakil's statements coupled with the gloomy picture painted by de Mul in Islamabad were deliberately made to put the onus on the hijackers.

The worldwide publicity that the Taliban seems to have got in this drama has meant that its isolation has been reduced just that little bit. As representatives from a number of western countries like Belgium, Switzerland, France, Italy, Spain as well as Nepal have flown to Kandahar, they have willy-nilly been thrown into contact with the Taliban authorities.Interestingly, even the representative of the anti-Taliban Rabbani faction in Delhi, Masood Khalili, told this reporter thathe was glad that the Taliban was playing such a positive role in this crisis.

``The Taliban are not beasts, they are also human beings,'' Khalili said, pointing out that the Afghan people would never forgive the Taliban if innocent people began to die on an airport tarmac in their country.

Back in Delhi, the foreign ministers of Argentina and Spain called Jaswant Singh last night to commiserate with him over the incident, even as foreign offices from all over the world began to publicly condemn the hijacking in the strongest terms. Though the US has not sent a representative to Kandahar, despite the fact that one US national is on board the aircraft, Singh told reporters that he was ``entirely satisfied with the cooperation'' he has received from the US.

It is believed that on New Delhi's request, Washington has placed a point person who is in direct contact with India, Pakistan and the UN, in connection with any help the US may be called upon to give.

Incidentally, there was little word from UNSecretary-General Kofi Annan, who restricted his message to the fact that a UN team would be engaged in giving humanitarian assistance to the hijacked passengers.

US State Department spokesman Philip Reeker called upon the Taliban government to help bring the hijacking to an end, saying ``we consider this terrorist act inhuman and call for the immediate safe release of all the hostages''. Russia offered every ``possible assistance'' to New Delhi to end the incident.

China, a close ally of Pakistan, said it was ``firmly opposed to and condemns all forms of terrorist activities (and) we hope the hijacking incident will be put to an end as soon as possible.''

Japan described it as an ``unacceptable, inhuman criminal act'' and urged India to put priority on the safety of hostages in its negotiations with the hijackers. ``We strongly deplore the hijacking incident and hope for an early and safe release of all hostages,'' Japanese foreign minister Yohei Kono said, according to the agencies.