WHAT a bitter dawning of the new millennium it must have been for the parents of "murdered" Blackburn student Paul Wells as they saw the Indian government give in to demands of the Kashmiri terrorist group they believe killed their son.

And what a conflict of emotions they must have undergone - happy for the release of the 155 passengers on the Indian Airlines plane the group hijacked to Afghanistan and yet appalled to see terrorist methods pay off in the form of a hostages-for-prisoners deal.

The hurt they endured must have been all the more acute when among the terrorist suspects freed by India was the fundamentalist Muslim cleric, prominent in the Kashmiri separatist movement, whose release was demanded when Paul and three other westerners were kidnapped in Kashmir four and a half years ago.

For although it will be harrowing for them to contemplate the thought that Paul might be alive and safe back home today if the Indian government had agreed in 1995 to the demands they granted on New Year's Eve, most harsh is the fact that, for all their personal ordeal and concern for their son, the Wells family steadfastly supported the authorities' refusal to do deals with terrorists.

Now, they see them do just that.

That such a deed has brought the freedom of 155 hijack hostages when no concessions were made for Paul and his fellow captives will indeed seem a bitter price for their families and friends.

But even if they were to regretfully concede the exigency of the circumstances in which the Indian government was caught, would they or other believers in freedom and justice allow the other price of this deal - the sending out of the dangerous message that terrorism pays?

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.