THE Indian Government on Monday refused to send relief helicopters to Pakistan without its pilots. Pakistan had earlier welcomed India’s offer of sending its helicopters for relief operations in Pakistan but suggested that it should send the choppers without pilots. The fact behind this suggestion from Pakistan was simple that it can however not allow Indian fighter pilots to fly in the most sensitive military fly-zones of Azad Kashmir, a dream that any Indian aviator must be harbouring for years.
It remains a fact that Kashmir is the root-cause of differences between Pakistan and Indian and both the countries have fought three wars over this Himalayan region. It was just simple that Indian fighter pilots cannot be given an access to fly in the most sensitive fly-zones or one can say military fly-zones unless the Kashmir dispute stand solved. Such a move could have just provide Indian pilots with an opportunity to carry out training sorties to fly in this region which can be highly beneficial to them in case of a stand-off or a break out.
Ironically, India on the other hand, immediately after extending chopper offer to Pakistan, launched a media campaign, raising the question as to why Pakistan was not accepting the copter offer. It simply ignored Pakistan’s call for supply of tents and blankets. Delhi, setting this chopper ploy, is trying to convey it to the global community that Pakistan is not sincere in peace process as it does not trust the Indians even during such a catastrophe.
However, at the same time India refused to give Pakistan a blanket permission for flying of its choppers in no-fly-zone and suggested that Pakistan must seek permission on case-to-case basis. This means that for picking up every injured, using no fly-zones, Pakistani DG MO will have to inform its Indian counterpart and after getting permission he will inform his pilots accordingly, an hours consuming exercise. Where was its sincerity at that time if it is so desperate to help and assist Pakistan for the relief of quake victims?
In another incident a Brigadier of the Indian Army appeared before international media and claimed that immediately after the earthquake, Pakistani soldiers from across the LoC sought the help of Indian soldiers. The Indian soldiers crossed the LoC, helped Pakistani soldiers and got back to their positions. Now this is something that again makes no sense. How can one believe that the soldiers on one side of the LoC, who are positioned face-to-face with the soldiers on the other side of the LoC were that much hit by the earthquake that they had to seek help of the soldiers sitting just across one fence and were totally un-affected by the same earthquake and were so fit that they went to help the soldiers across the line. The Brigadier of the Indian Army also failed to elaborate as to how did the Indian soldiers cross the LoC that is fenced strongly by the Indian troops. This was again a media gimmick, forwarded by the Indian Government to befool the global community and international media.
The Daily Mail strongly stands by the Government’s decision of regretting India’s copter offer as it would have resulted into a severe security lapse, disclosing the entire sensitive military fly-zone to the un-ruled out enemy pilots. As far as India’s chopper ploy is concerned the world media and the global community is mature enough to see through and to read between the lines. On the other side The Daily Mail would advise the Indian Government to send its choppers to the quake-hit areas of Indian Occupied Kashmir as the people there are still looking forward for help and relief operations by the Indian helicopters who are yet to make even a single sortie to those areas.

Avian flu fears

THERE are three dangers arising from the apparently deadly H5N1 version of bird flu which is now in Turkey and Romania. The least of these dangers is probably the virus itself. Of greater concern are the reactions of politicians and the conclusions drawn by the man in the street about the real threat to his family and friends. If even medical men disagree about the threat of this or that sickness, what is a layman to think? In recent years we have been told that AIDS or SARS would cut a deadly swathe through the entire world. Though AIDS is indeed wreaking devastation in Sub-Saharan Africa, it has not become the predicted global pandemic. Then there was SARS which, we were told, might kill millions. Millions did not perish. Depending on which medical authority you choose to believe, SARS did not become a pandemic because of the timely actions of world health ministries in isolating the infected or it did not take hold because the initial pathology was just plain wrong. SARS was no doubt a nasty illness but it was never going be the killer of millions.
Now we have avian flu and the feared H5N1 strain. Last week medical researchers said that they had unscrambled the genetic code of the Spanish flu virus which, between 1918 and 1921, killed 21 million people, more than were slain in the murderous bloodbaths of World War I. Scientists and researchers discovered that the Spanish flu had an avian origin. The clear inference is that Asian bird flu could be similarly devastating. Yet since the H5N1 strain of the virus was identified last year, only 60 unfortunate people have died as the infection moved from birds and infected humans. China is reporting that it has developed an effective vaccine for the condition and the India pharmaceutical manufacturer, Cipla, says that it plans to produce a generic version of the anti-viral drug Tamiflu because Roche, the drug’s inventors, are unable to meet massive demand from governments anxious to stockpile emergency doses.
Politicians are, however, generally the worst judges of what is real about the threat of a pandemic. They will either be tempted to play down the danger — Turkey has announced with perplexing certainty that the outbreak among Turkish poultry no longer poses a danger of infection to human. Or they will protect themselves by ordering millions of doses of anti-virus serum despite the warnings from many medical professionals that the serum may well be useless against the final form of the virus.
The final — and arguably greatest danger — comes from a world public that is inherently distrustful of the promises, especially those made by elected politicians. If voters really do not trust their governments, then they will begin to believe the very worst that the scaremongers are saying. That could start a panic which would hamper, if not completely negate, the efforts of authorities to cope with the situation. The only sure defenses against such disastrous reaction are calm and a sense of proportion. Bird flu could indeed turn out to be very serious but panic for sure will only make the situation worse.

—Arab News