The Ghost of Rupin Katyal

by Aarcee

March 20, 2007

Scarcely does anyone remember Rupin and Rachana Katyal. Let me give you a hint: They were married on December 3rd 1999 in New Delhi and went to Kathmandu for their honeymoon ? Any recollection ? No ? Let me give you another hint. They flew Indian Airlines flight IC-814 on December 24th, 1999. Somewhere a bell rings faintly, doesn’t it ? Yes....

Well let me tell you. These two people were among the ill fated passengers of the Indian Airlines flight IC-814 that was hijacked by five Pakistani nationals and was flown first to Kabul, then to UAE and finally back to Khandahar in Afghanistan. Rupin Katyal was stabbed and killed by the kidnappers, making his wife, Rachana, a widow even before the henna on her palms had dried. Ultimately, after securing the release of three terrorists in Indian custody, the hijackers let the passengers go and blew the plane up. The Taleban administration did not lift a finger to intervene in this matter. America saw this issue as a regional problem, yawned, turned over and went to sleep. Just two years earlier, almost to the day, A senior delegation from the Taleban movement in Afghanistan had visited the United States on December 4, 1997 for talks with an international energy company that wanted to construct a gas pipeline from Turkmenistan across Afghanistan to Pakistan.

On the afternoon of December 24, 1999, A vehicle from the Pakistan embassy had driven to the Tribhuvan Airport, Kathmandu carrying Pakistani First Secretary Mohammed Arshad Cheema, his assistant Zia Ansari and a Nepali Muslim by the name of Abdul Rias Khan. Two airport officials noted down their registration number. They also noticed that the first secretary had a briefcase. Flaunting their diplomatic immunity, they walked into the departure lounge unchecked. The briefcase was handed over to the hijackers. Nepali airport staff officers contended that Cheema did not have the briefcase when he left from the airport.

The three desperados released by India were later found to be instrumental in the beheading of NY Times journalist Daniel Pearl. When the WTC were attacked by the Taleban’s cronies, the Talebani hemorrhoid, that the US had seen as afflicting India, also came to hurt its own rear end. When Bush mentioned that he was happy that India was going to join as an ally in the war on terror, the then Prime Minister of India, Atal Bihari Vajpayee laughed and said, “We have been fighting this war for 55 years. It is US that is joining in, not us !”

Even as the War on Terror was waged against Afghanistan’s Taleban rightly and against Iraq (less rightly), Pakistan was always touted as ‘A valuable ally’ in this war. The role of the Pakistanis as the architect of Taleban was not hidden from anyone who dared to wander outside the confining walls of the US media coverage, but still the Pakistani rogue dog was pampered publicly and chastised privately by the US. Was it because this thorn had to be maintained in India’s side as long as enough cooperation could be milked out from the Pakistanis ? We don’t know. It, however, emerged soon that whenever US put pressure on Pakistan, Musharraf would pull a rabbit (terrorist) out of the hat and hand him over to the US. Was it because there was a need to keep the war going by taking one ‘rabbit’ at a time ? We don’t know that too, It is for the reader to decide.

However, today the ghost of Rupin Katyal hovers over Musharraf’s head as he lies in bed every morning wondering if that day will be his last as the head of state in Pakistan, a country that was born a runt; and which, since its inception, has begged or blackmailed for every mouthful it has eaten, exported hatred and terrorism, and, aside for a short span, was headed by one blood-thirsty general after the another. Despite grabbing the most fertile Indus plains, they remain an anemic festering pus pocket when India is prospering next doors.

Pakistan is a problem for India. It’s existence itself is a problem. The foolishness of Jinnah’s generation must be reversed. A phased comprehensive plan of making Pakistan secular, limiting religion, and absorbing it into India over the next hundred years must be initiated.

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