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When I'm Sixty Four
'There you are now, sitting in your chair like a rag doll, drooling. Or lying in bed, praying for an early deliverance. And all you have now is your spouse, your children and a handful of your oldest friends. And if you're not particularly lucky you might not even have that.' Anvar Alikhan has seen the future.

'There's no room for complacency when there's a rogue in the neighbourhood'
Krishna V Rajan, India's ambassador to Nepal, on the post-hijack scenario, the threat from the Inter-Services Intelligence and other issues of concern.

The hijack and the Kathmandu connection
Major Gen Ashok K Mehta says the hijack of the Indian Airlines Airbus was both a pity and a miracle. A miracle because it had not happened so far. And a pity that, had it happened earlier, the CBI team sent to Kathmandu would, long ago, have uncovered the ISI network in Nepal.

The Naxal connection
Some Maoist leaders have contacts in Pakistan and, if a deal is struck between them and the ISI, Nepal, which till now has only been a passive witness to Pakistani operations, may have to pay a heavy price.

Down with India!
The ISI feels more comfortable about operating from Nepal because of the growing anti-India sentiment there.

The auctioned airport
Tribhuvan airport is an apology for an international airport. Security is a pretty meaningless term here and the levels of corruption being embarrassingly high, even by local bureaucratic standards. The only people who feel completely at home there are those with something to hide.

Paris teems with Indian illegals
So alarmed are the EU authorities by this flood of migrants from the Indian subcontinent that it has become a major issue between the two sides. No government has accurate figures, but estimates say up to 20,000 illegal migrants from India are landing in the EU each month. Ranvir Nayar reports from Paris.

Is some rethinking of policy towards Afghanistan now needed?
'Can the Taleban continue to be ignored and denounced as a malign, fundamentalist State bent on doing damage to India, or do the country's interests demand a move, however cautious, to open links with Kabul? asks former foreign secretary Salman Haider.

Working on the Gurkhas
Once it had consolidated its position in Kathmandu, the ISI began expanding operations, going into the hinterland, particularly the region bordering India that is home to what are arguably the Indian army's doughtiest fighters -- the Gurkhas.

The underworld warlord
Dawood Ibrahim and the ISI are looking for someone to replace Mirza Dilshad Beg, the local politician who was killed last year, to manage their affairs in Kathmandu's criminal community.

Twilight Zone
The Inter-Services Intelligence is using Nepal -- and the Pakistan embassy in Kathmandu -- to organise subversive activities in India. Josy Joseph who investigated the issue in the Himalayan nation, believes the situation could go out of control if the Indian and Nepali authorities don't wake up quickly.

At the vanguard of the jihad
The Binori Town madrassah in Karachi, where Maulana Masood Azhar chose to make his first public appearance, is one of the most influential centres of hardline Muslim ideology and a preparation ground for future terrorists.

India caved in too early
'The way the political leadership behaved in the present crisis, is being perceived at the popular level as a weak response. In the process, comparisons are being made between the present leadership and the past,' says Sreedhar.

Pakistan's role in the hijack
'Taleban authorities were openly confessing to the diplomatic corps that they were in no position to withstand the pressure being mounted on them by Islamabad. If they did anything to help India, Pakistan could destabilise the entire Islamic Emirates of Afghanistan, says Sreedhar.

The hijack crisis bares India's political diffidence and diplomatic credulity
'Admission of defeat does not have to take the form of grovelling. But Jaswant Singh's flight to Kandahar with the three terrorists amounted to that, says Professor Brahma Chellaney.

'The main aim of Pakistan is the destabilisation of India, not merely grabbing Kashmir'

'The reasons for Pakistani hostility are rooted in the very ideology of that nation. India enjoys an edge over Pakistan in conventional weaponry. This force should be used in a graduated manner against the Pakistani border areas as a first step,' says Colonel (Dr) Anil A Athale.

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