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The dawn would have illuminated the pools of blood, as the villagers emerged to count their dead. For all of the night of February 24, 2000, residents of the hamlet of Lanjote had bunkered down, hoping not to be hit by artillery fire arcing across the LoC. The 16 bodies on the streets, though, bore evidence of the precision savagery of the knife, not the shell: 90-year-old Mohammad Alam Wali, and a young couple, Mohammad Murtaza and Kali Begum, had been decapitated. Limbs were severed; heads hacked. The youngest victim, Ahmad Niaz, was just two. With deliberation, it seemed, the...

Rajiv: The Tiger chief's big mistake Seema Guha Tuesday, May 19, 2009 1:22 IST New Delhi: Prabhakaran made two fatal mistakes which brought about his downfall. One was his complete isolation from the rest of the world and the decision to eliminate former Indian prime minister Rajiv Gandhi. In 1991, Indian reporters visiting Jaffna were flooded with questions from LTTE leaders about the chances of the Congress returning to power. The thinking was: If Rajiv is elected, his first priority would be to avenge the humiliation suffered by the IPKF -- when ex-president Premadasa and Prabhakaran got together to throw...

Benazir and Rajiv, linked by dynasty and death RADHIKA RAMASESHAN New Delhi, Dec. 27: A still-young former Prime Minister, faced with a make-or-break election, is killed in a suicide attack at a rally venue. Benazir Bhutto, or Rajiv Gandhi? Sonia Gandhi’s condolence message to Benazir’s family today reflected one of the many threads that link the two most illustrious political dynasties of India and Pakistan. Benazir’s assassination is “a painful reminder of the threat posed by the forces of violence and terror to the civilised world”, the Congress president said. “Her life’s unrealised potential has been cut short. For the...

What Rajiv Gandhi told Canada PM after A-I blast May 03, 2007 09:54 IST In a phone call just after the bombing of the Air India plane in 1985, then Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi had asked his Canadian counterpart why all the baggage on the flight was not removed and rechecked in Montreal when three pieces were found to be suspicious. Gandhi had suggested to Prime Minister Brian Mulroney that Canada had breached international procedures by not re-screening the luggage on Flight 182. Details of the emotionally-charged exchange were revealed on Wednesday in declassified government documents released at the...

Keep the faith platform | BG Deshmukh September 7, 2006 The story of India’s strategic programmes is not well documented. Part of the reason is that protagonists do not talk. Even if they want to, they are handicapped by the Official Secrets Act that follows signatories to the grave. Given these limitations, a few defence analysts and retired officials like me have tried to describe the projects as best as we could without compromising on national security. At the best of times, it is not an easy job. At worse, it can turn into imaginings. Even though scientists at the...

Inside a comic-book coup Why the Maldivian president needs to be eternally grateful to an unsung Indian frigate captain SHEKHAR GUPTA Posted online: Saturday, March 19, 2005 at 0213 hours IST Earlier this week some newspapers carried a small obituary notice, announcing the demise of Vice-Admiral Srinivasa Varadachari V. Gopalachari of the Indian Navy. The name, the face under the naval hat, figured in my memory somewhere and, sure enough, a little checking confirmed that he was the master of frigate INS Godavari when it went chasing the Maldives coup leaders in the Indian Ocean in 1988. He died last...