How to eliminate kidnappings

Maoists on Saturday kidnapped the collector of Sukma district in Bastar area of Chhattisgarh after killing two of his bodyguards.

The left-wing ultras intercepted the vehicle of Sukma Collector Alex Paul Menon, an IAS officer, in Keralapal area of the district while he was returning from a village meeting, top police officials said.

Nearly 15 Maoists on bikes arrived at the spot and shot dead the two guards who were escorting Menon, before taking him with them.

A police team headed by Superintendent of Police Abhishek Shandilya has rushed to the spot, officials said.

Menon is a 2006 batch IAS officer of the Tamil Nadu cadre.

Home Minister P Chdambaram called up Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Raman Singh to discuss the issue. Singh has appealed to the Maoists to release the collector.

The home ministry has assured that all help will be extended to the Chhattisgarh government to help rescue the collector.

According to media reports, the Intelligence Bureau had inputs that Maoists may attempt to kidnap the collector. Menon had been advised

The seeds of this kidnap was sown long long ago.

No, not on 12th of March 2012 when the Odisa MLA was kidnapped. It was sown on at 3:45 p.m. on December 8, 1989 when one Rubaiya Sayeed, then 23 years old, was the unmarried third daughter of Mufti Mohammad Sayeed, then Home Minister of India, was kidnapped by terrorists in Kashmir who demanded the release of terrorists in exchange.It was the NDA government of Atal Behari Vajpaye and he wanted show that he was pro-Muslim, so he released the terrorists.

That release was followed by another when Indian Airlines Airbus A300 en route from Tribhuvan International Airport in Kathmandu, Nepal to Indira Gandhi International Airport in Delhi, India on Friday, December 24, 1999, when it was hijacked. Harkat-ul-Mujahideen, a Pakistan-based group, was accused for the hijacking.

The aircraft was hijacked by gunmen shortly after it entered Indian airspace at about 17:30 IST. After touching down in Amritsar, Lahore and Dubai, the hijackers forced the aircraft to land in Kandahar, Afghanistan. The hijackers released 27 of 176 passengers in Dubai but fatally stabbed one and wounded several others.

India's lack of recognition of the Taliban regime in Afghanistan complicated negotiations between Indian authorities and the hijackers. Taliban moved its well-armed fighters near the hijacked aircraft in an attempt to prevent Indian special forces from storming the aircraft. The hijacking lasted for seven days and ended after India released three militants — Mushtaq Ahmed Zargar, Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh and Maulana Masood Azhar.

This too was under the NDA government and our Foreign Minister, Jaswant Singh himself personally escorted the terrorists to Afghanistan.

If the Indian Government would like to put an end to the kidnapping it should put in place a policy similar to Israel.The Israelis do not negotiate with any hijacker no matter who is hijacked or kidnapped. The go all out to eliminate the criminals who carry out this act. If any of our bonafide countrymen are killed in the process, their families should be suitably rewarded so that at least economically they do not suffer. Their families should be given a monthly income which is equal to what the dead person would have earned for the rest of their lives with the income rising annually with the rate of inflation.