THE indictment of Cuban ex-president Raul Castro is in the news nowadays. He, along with five others, was indicted by a United States grand jury in Florida in 1996 in connection with the shooting down of two civilian Cessna aircraft carrying officials of an organisation opposed to the Cuban government. Four people were killed in the incident. At that time, the indictment was sealed, and has now been unsealed. What follows is yet to be seen.

I remember a similar incident when an Iran Air flight 655, an Airbus A-300, on an international flight from Tehran to Dubai carrying 229 passengers, was shot while flying over Iranian territorial waters, on July 3, 1988, by two missiles fired by USS Vincennes. Ronald Reagan was the American president at the time, and no official apology was offered. No one was indicted, and the case was closed.

Recently, the top leadership of Iran was mercilessly killed by US and Israeli forces, but no one has been indicted. Likewise, about 70,000 innocent citizens, including women and children, have been killed in Gaza by the ruthless Israeli regime, but no one has been indicted. But one should not lose hope. The indictment of Raul Castro was sealed in 1996 and reopened after 30 years. Maybe a time would come when the perpetrators of these crimes would also be made to face the music.

Malik ul Quddoos
Karachi

Published in Dawn, July 5th, 2026