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Hijack crisis casts shadow over Kashmir security

SRINAGAR: Indian security forces in occupied Kashmir fear the release of Mujahideen in exchange for hostages in a hijacked Indian Airlines jet last week may encourage them.

Some 154 hostages including passengers and crew walked to safety last Friday after India released three Mujahideen, including a Pakistani religious scholar.

The release has sparked an intense debate in India, with critics accusing the government of setting a bad precedent.

A security official in occupied Srinagar told Reuters on Sunday that police and paramilitary forces were unlikely to lose heart.

"But to some extent it will raise the morale of the Mujahideen," said the official, who did not want to be identified.

India said its negotiators found the going difficult after they discovered that the plane had been wired up with explosives.

"There was no option left for the government but to release these dreaded terrorists," Shyam Kumar, a paramilitary official, told Reuters, adding that it may have adverse consequences.

"It will have its implications," he said.

The release of the Mujahideen had taken place after a tough protest by relatives of the hostages, some of whom cited the release in 1989 of an interior minister's daughter in exchange for Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF) Mujahideen.

Rubaiya Sayeed, daughter of then Indian Home Minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed was freed in exchange for five Mujahideen of the JKLF, which in 1994 declared a ceasefire and launched a "political" movement for Kashmir's independence.

Police have recorded at least 3,650 abductions since anti-India struggle broke out in the Himalayan region.

However, the release of Mujahideen in exchange for the Indian Airlines hostages has left its mark on the minds of soldiers.

"We are fighting them in such cold conditions, kill them and get killed too. And they release their leaders...it is not a good trend at all," said a soldier patrolling a highway in occupied Srinagar.-Reuters