Why stop the search now?

After a week of intense searches for Malaysia Airlines’ Flight MH370, more and more conspiracy theories are being aired. Curiously, even as Strobe Talbott, former US deputy secretary of state, tweeted about the possibility of the plane being hijacked for a 9/11-type aerial attack on an Indian city, we were told by Malaysia to suspend the search in the Andaman Sea and Bay of Bengal for any sign of the plane’s debris.

Mr Talbott is an old India hand and if any credence is given to his theory, then India, and its air defences, would have to be on high alert. Where is the need then for India to stop the hunt in its own waters?

Another theory is that Afghan terrorists, inspired by one of the brains behind 9/11, gave a “shoe bomb” to a Malaysian conspirator to possibly bomb the cockpit door so that someone who knows how to fly a plane could make a forced entry. But everything is speculation and little is known on where the plane, with 239 people on board, might have really gone.

The missing passengers’ relatives have even been asked about any suicidal tendencies of those on board the ill-fated flight, adding more to the misery of not knowing about the fate of their loved ones. There are many leading questions being asked by experts to which there are no clear answers yet. Suffice it to say that it is time for all information available be put on an open international platform so that the search focuses on the essential aspects.