The Hindu : National : Not my decision: Vajpayee

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Saturday, Aug 26, 2006

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National

Not my decision: Vajpayee

Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI : The former Prime Minister, Atal Bihari Vajpayee, on Friday denied having personally taken the decision to release three hardcore terrorists, to deliver them to the Taliban, after the hijacking of an Indian Airlines plane in December 1999.

He told reporters this when a question was put to him following the issue being raised in Parliament earlier in the day.

Both Houses were adjourned for a while when the matter came up following a reported statement of the former Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister, Farooq Abdullah. Dr. Abdullah was reported to have charged Mr. Vajpayee with taking the decision.

Bharatiya Janata Party spokesperson V.K. Malhotra also said that "it was a Cabinet decision and not a single person present at the meeting had objected." He charged that the Congress had encouraged agitations by the kin of those held hostage, putting pressure on the Government. Mr. Malhotra referred to the release of terrorists when Mufti Mohammad Sayeed's daughter was kidnapped in Kashmir in 1989. However, when he said that the Mufti was a Chief Minister in a coalition Government with the Congress as partner, he was virtually forced to withdraw the remark when reminded that the Mufti was Home Minister in the V.P. Singh Government supported by the BJP and the Left at that time.

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