Natwar Singh may have committed a mistake

Union External Affairs Minister Natwar Singh seems to have committed a mistake when he told the relatives of the Indian hostages in Iraq that the abductors appear to have done it for money.

Three Indians -- Antaryami, Tilak Raj and Sukhdev Singh -- were among six people taken hostage by a group that calls itself 'Black Flags'.

Singh told Ram Murthy Bains: "They (abductors) appear to be doing it for money." Bains is the father of Antaryami.

A retired Cabinet Secretary told rediff.com: "When hostages are not yet released and India is not on top of the situation how can a minister paint the captors negatively? Calling them mercenaries is unthinkable."

The intelligence and the diplomatic community got a jolt on Sunday when headlines screamed 'Iraq hostages may be freed for ransom'.

"Singh is not being careful in his statements," said a former member of the Joint Intelligence Committee.

The Iraqi militant group had initially demanded that Kuwait and Gulf Link Transport Company, which employed the three Indians, wind up its operations in Iraq by Saturday failing which it would start killing one hostage every 72 hours.

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A retired intelligence officer told rediff.com: "In a crisis situation like this one should be very careful in the use of language. Singh said in his TV broadcast that the Indian truck drivers are non-combatants. It is a very American expression. Instead the Indian side should have projected them as poor people from distant villages of India who were in Kuwait to earn their bread and mistakenly got into Iraq."

"In the same way we can't call them mercenaries. Psychological approach to deal with militants is very important," he added.

H S Mejie, an Indian businessman based in Baghdad, told rediff.com:  "I am shocked. The Indian community in Baghdad is very upset by Mr Singh's comment. It's a blunder. What's wrong with our minister?"

Mejie, who is also the adviser to FICCI on Iraq affairs, presented a paper on Indo-Iraq business potential before a large audience in Delhi.

Mejie said, "Most paramount is the lives of Indians. Whether abductors are riff raffs or freedom fighters is not an issue. I am sure Indians will be released soon, but we have to be careful."

The abductors indefinitely extended their deadline hours before it was to expire but issued a warning to the Indian government 'not to attack Islamic religious leaders' while pressing for the demand that the Kuwaiti firm, for whom the hostages worked, withdraw from the country.

The group reportedly extend their deadline in response to an appeal by Sheikh Hisham al-Dulami, an Iraqi tribal leader. Dulami had declared himself a negotiator and was close to deposed Iraqi President Saddam Hussein. Hussein's wife also belongs to the Dulami tribe.

Mejie said that Iraqis do not view the abductors as mercenaries . They view them as freedom fighters, he said. The foreign minister should not have commented on them, he added.

"According to our information when the abductors learnt that the some shares of the transport company are also held by Sheikhs of Kuwait they increased their demands," he said.