IC-814 hijack: Farooq Abdullah reads Advani's thoughts? Said latter unhappy with militant release

New Delhi, July 22: Former Chief Minister Farooq Abdullah, expressing his disappointment at the release of militants in exchange for passengers in the hijacked IC-814 in 1999, said he believed that L K Advani too was not in favour of the strategy.

Revealing his conversation with L K Advani at the time of crisis, he said,""I don't think Advani wanted the militants to be released. I could feel it in the vibration of his voice."

Abdullah made this remark at the release of former RAW chief A S Daulat's book "Kashmir: The Vajpayee Years". However, when asked about the lives of the passengers at stake, Abdullah said,"A nation cannot be built unless sacrifices are made. One cannot build India by being soft. The aircraft should not have been allowed to leave Amritsar in the first place."

Holding himself responsible for the goof-up, Dulat stated,"If there was a goof-up, I was a part of it since I was a part of the crisis management group."

"Not a rupee, not a dollar was paid as ransom" he said.

OneIndia News