The Indian government did what it had to to bring that nightmare plane hijacking to an end on Friday, releasing three imprisoned Kashmiri militants in return for the 154 passengers and crew members of the Indian Airlines jet.
But that shouldn’t be the end of the affair. The New Delhi government ought to hunt down the monsters who committed this crime and subject them to trial, judgment and punishment, showing just as much mercy as they showed to the passenger, a newlywed man, they stabbed to death at the start of the crime.
And in this effort, India ought to receive the cooperation of every government in the world that dares call itself civilized. For no matter how just the cause or how deep the grievance, nothing can justify what these hijackers did.
The hijacking turned what was to have been a brief, Christmas-eve flight from Nepal to New Delhi into a week-long ordeal, both for those aboard the plane and the entire Indian nation.
And in one particularly tragic case, it turned a young woman from a honeymooning bride into a widow. One can only imagine the combination of fear, horror and anguish that that young woman experienced–and will live with for years to come.
All this in the name of freedom-fighting. The hijackers never revealed their identities or their affiliation, but their demands clearly indicated a tie to a terrorist group seeking independence from India for predominantly Muslim Kashmir.
To be sure, a solution to the problem of Kashmir should have been found long ago. But that failure cannot justify cruelty and barbarism like the Indian Airlines hijacking.
