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Journalism of Courage
Ever since it came to light last week that intelligence reports are crackling with the possibility of terrorist groups hijacking an aircraft in South Asia,Indian airports have amplified security checks. In fact,intelligence agencies are reported to have distilled specific information on plans to target an Air India or Indian Airlines. In this regard,a review of sectors on which to deploy sky marshals would have been an obvious response. And given the still bruising experience of flight IC-814 ten years ago,flights to and from Kathmandu should naturally be priority for security agencies.
As reported in this newspaper,the Central government issued a demarche on Nepal a week ago seeking greater cooperation on the deployment of sky marshals on board flights to that country. The request reaches back to the immediate aftermath of the hijack in December 1999 of flight IC-814 from Kathmandu,which the hijackers eventually commandeered to Kandahar to win the release of three terrorists then in Indian custody. The fact that there has been so little movement on sky marshals aboard Indian carriers flying to and from Nepal should be cause for concern. Concern in Kathmandu presumably stems from a possible scenario in which for some reason of inclement weather,for instance sky marshals are forced to deplane and enter Nepals territory. These are,however,issues that can easily be thrashed out to the satisfaction of both governments. And,more importantly,these are issues that can be sorted out without them acquiring political overtones.
