REUTERS[ FRIDAY, JULY 30, 2004 02:13:20 PM ]
UNA (Himachal Preadesh): Hundreds of people blocked traffic in northern India on Friday in protest against the government's failure to win the release of three men held hostage in Iraq, as a deadline set by the kidnappers drew near.
Villagers squatted on a state highway leading to the home of Antaryami, one of seven foreign truck drivers being held by militants, who have threatened to kill one of them by 7:00 pm (1500 GMT) on Friday.
His captors released a videotape showing a masked man pointing an automatic rifle at Antaryami, who looked frightened and was sweating.
"If something happens to him, we will burn government offices and the government will be responsible," said his sister Harjinder Kaur in Una in the northern state of Himachal Pradesh.
Groups of protestors sat on railway tracks, disrupting train services.
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/796304.cms
What is wrong with these people? Does burning govt buildings and squatting on railway tracks help release the hostages? It made sense when IC 814 was hijacked, but what can the govt. do in this case?
Surely the govt didnt send those three men to work in Iraq, they went there on their own and know that there is a clear risk. Besides the kidnappers are not asking for a ransom, they want all Indians to stop working in Iraq, and its not in the hands of government. Does damaging public property do any good? India is the only nation in the world where I see this kind of attitude. Emotion takes over commonsense.
