Letters To The Editor

Act of cowardice8226; Media reports have very rightly highlighted the terrible news of a young Indian engineer being heinously assassinated...

Act of cowardice

8226; Media reports have very rightly highlighted the terrible news of a young Indian engineer being heinously assassinated by the Taliban terrorists. This is not the first time that we have faced such a tragedy. We remember very well the fate meted out to Maniappan Kutty, an employee of the Border Roads Organisation, who was killed last November. Every Indian condemns such acts 8212; which are condoned neither by, nor any other religion. The Taliban are just creating problems for Indians and the whole world by such acts of terror, which are really acts of cowardice.

8212; Ahmad Rais Siddiqi, New Delhi

Punish the guilty

8226; The killing of Indian engineer K. Suryanarayana by Talibani terrorists must be condemned by all in the strongest terms. These outlaws fail to understand that the man whom they killed was engaged in modernising their own country. By resorting to such inhuman acts, they not only reveal the darkest side of their religion but also lose the sympathy and understanding of the entire civilised world. The Indian and Afghan governments must collectively ensure that the guilty are brought to justice and those serving in Afghanistan receive adequate security in the future.

8212; J.M. Manchanda, New Delhi

Indian security

8226; The Taliban first killed Maniappan Raman Kutty, a Border Roads Organisation personnel, working on the Zaranj-Delaram road project. In February another engineer, Bharath Kumar, working with a Turkish company was killed in a bomb explosion, and now we have the sad news of K.Suryanarayana. The country is outraged by the way Suryanarayana was beheaded and stands firmly behind his family. The PM must ensure that the Afghan government takes urgent steps to secure the lives of Indian nationals working on various projects in Afghanistan.

8212; Bidyut K. Chatterjee, Faridabad

Black sheep

8226; There can be no justification for the horrendous incidents in Pathribal, howsoever much you try to pass the buck on to civilian administrators in your editorial,8216;Who lit the fire?8217; IE, April 28. Instead of severely condemning the blatant misconduct of the army officers, led by no less than a one-star general, how can you coolly perceive the crime as a blemish of the society from which they emanate? The argument for a merit evaluation system 8212; put forward by Lt. Gen. Raghavan on the op-ed page of the same edition 8212; cannot also be accepted. Remember the Siachen episode, where another fictitious encounter involving senior army officers coveting gallantry awards was brought to light? Such systems of merit evaluation need to be done away with. The army is the pride of the nation and officers of the ranks of brigadier and colonel are social icons. But the black sheep must be exposed and reprimanded in an exemplary manner.

8212; Gautam Mookerjee, Kolkata

Snippy over snaps

8226; While I enjoyed your series on the progress of the construction of expressways in India and other reports and features, sometimes you disappoint me. By printing the picture of the wedding ceremony of Lalu Prasad Yadav8217;s daughter, you are giving us news about a nobody. These photos should, at best, have been confined to the society pages. Such treatment makes our VIPs consider themselves above everybody else. I hope you will be more discriminating about your photographs henceforth.

8212; Niranjan Solanki, Vadodara