The Central government today refuted Congress President Rahul Gandhi’s claims over the role of National Security Adviser Ajit Doval in the 1999 release of Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) head Masood Azhar.
As per sources, Doval had no role to play in the release of the terrorist following the hijack of the Indian Airlines Flight 814 in Kandahar in the year 1999.
Sources clarified, that in the photo Tweeted by Rahul Gandhi on Sunday to attack Prime Minister Modi and his government, the person standing next to Doval was the then military chief of the Taliban Army and not Masood Azhar as claimed by Rahul Gandhi.
PM Modi please tell the families of our 40 CRPF Shaheeds, who released their murderer, Masood Azhar?
Also tell them that your current NSA was the deal maker, who went to Kandahar to hand the murderer back to Pakistan. pic.twitter.com/hGPmCFJrJC
— Rahul Gandhi (@RahulGandhi) March 10, 2019
Moreover, the Government sources also clarified that Doval was the first one to have reached Kandahar from India after the hijack to negotiate with the terrorists. The truth was that Masood Azhar and other terrorists were taken to Kandahar in a special plane by the then foreign minister Jaswant Singh and not Doval, they said.
In fact, it was NSA Doval who was effective in bringing down the number of terrorists to be released from 35 to just three. Ajit Doval being a government official then had to follow the decisions of the government. Reportedly, Ajit Doval had requested the government for more time to negotiate a deal without the release of Azhar to rescue the hostages.
Sources further rubbishing Rahul’s claims said, the government at that time was divided over the release of terrorists in exchange of 178 passengers of the IC-814. The then deputy prime minister Lal Krishna Advani was against the release but, however, the then Prime Minister late Atal Bihari Vajpayee had given in to the pressure from the opposition parties, which included the Congress and families of the people who were held hostage by the terrorists.
Rahul Gandhi, whose sole aim has been scorning the BJP government, took to Twitter on Sunday to share a picture alleging that NSA Ajit Doval went to Kandahar to hand over “murderer” Azhar.
Rahul Gandhi who seems to be getting more and more troubled and desperate to get back to power has been trying these dirty tricks to castigate PM Modi before the Lok Sabha elections due in April 2019. He in his Tweet urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to tell the families of the 40 slain Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) jawans regarding the person who released Masood Azhar.
Masood Azhar along with some other terrorists was released by the Indian government in December 1999 in exchange for the release of over 178 hostages of the IC-814 Indian Airlines flight that was hijacked to Kandahar. This harsh step was taken by the then Government to save the 178 civilians whose lives were at stake. There was intense pressure on the government to secure the release of the hostages from families, media and opposition parties. One of the passengers had died in Dubai after he was stabbed by the hijackers, therefore the safety of the hostages had become the topmost priority and Indian government had no other way other than accepting the demand of the hijackers once the plane had left India.
Meanwhile, for the Congress Supremo, who himself heads a party, whose members have on several occasions come across as terror sympathisers, to use the Kandahar incident, which everyone knows was a backbreaking decision for the then NDA Government, speaks volumes about Rahul’s mental condition at this point of time. In his fretfulness, the Gandhi scion is willing to stoop down to any level and in turn, break his own created records of absurdity.
