Your balanced editorial of August 12 headlined, 'Shooting down peace', on the latest episode in the India-Pakistan conflict, was level-headed and non-partisan.
I am surprised that the Indian Consulate-General (letter, South China Morning Post, August 14) took the opposite view.
Shooting down an unarmed plane with such a huge loss of life neither augers well for peace in the subcontinent, nor makes world opinion favourable towards India. Furthermore, rhetoric about what the Pakistani plane was capable of, is immaterial. It in no way justifies shooting down the plane.
If the Pakistani plane was on a hostile mission and had missiles on board as claimed by your correspondent Nabendu Pal (letter headlined, 'India right', Post, August 16), why didn't it fire back? Anyone looking at this tragic incident objectively would agree with your editorial.
I strongly believe people on both sides of this conflict would agree that there has been a lot of bloodshed, suffering and mayhem. Moreover, both states now possess nuclear weapons. The downing of this plane could have wider implications.
M. S. AWAN Tsim Sha Tsui