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'The country's dignity comes first'

Bibhuti Mishra in Bhubaneswar

Twenty-four-year-old Dr Ipsita Biswal, a dental surgeon working in Hyderabad, wed Vipin Menon, a Delhi-based professional, 18 days ago. Today the couple is incarcerated in the hijacked Airbus at Kandahar.

Like Rachana and Rupin Katyal, Vipin and Ipsita were in Nepal for their honeymoon. They were booked on last Thursday's flight, but bad weather made them postpone their return by a day and catch the ill-fated plane.

Ipsita's elder brother Pramod Biswal, though disconsolate, says: "The country's dignity comes first. We should not bow before the irrational demands of these hijackers."

The Biswal family is based in Cuttack. Ipsita's family saw off the couple from Delhi on December 20. Pramod returned to Orissa on December 13, two days after the wedding.

"It is cruel how their merrymaking got transformed into terrible anxiety. We can only pray to God. Nobody should be selfish enough to compromise the country's dignity for personal gains," says Pramod.

The rest of his benumbed family is still in Delhi, waiting for news. Everyone is shell-shocked, but all agree with the government that 'sar kata sakte hain lekin sar jhuka sakte nahin (We would rather have our heads cut than bend them).'

NIGHTMARE ON FLIGHT 814
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