Congress had dittoed Kandahar decision in 1999: BJP

New Delhi, Aug 25 (UNI) The BJP today said the Congress had never opposed the the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government's decision in 1999 to release Jaish-e-Mohammad chief Masood Azhar in exchange of passengers of the hijacked Indian Airlines plane IC 814 at Kandahar.

''Almost all the parties were urging the Government to do anything for the release of the captives. It was the cabinet decision to release three terrorists, including Masood Azhar, in exchange of the IC 814 passengers as demanded by the hijackers,'' BJP Parliamentary Party spokesman Vijay Kumar Malhotra told mediapersons at a pree briefing in Parliament's precincts.

Even charging the Congress of sponsoring the protests for an early release of the innocent passengers at that time, he noted that when the passengers were brought back here safely, all had praised the then NDA Government, regretting that the Congress and others raked up this issue after six years to cause adjournment of both the Houses.

In regard to former Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Farooq Abdullah's interview to a megazine in which he had alleged that the then Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee and former Deputy Prime Minister L K Advani pressurised him to release Masood Azhar, Mr Malhotra said it was a cabinet decision taken collectively.

He further reminded the Congress that it had now a coalition government in Jammu and Kashmir along with PDP, headed earlier by Mufti Mohammad Sayeed, who as Home Minister in the V P Singh government in 1989, had agreed to release terrorists in exchange of his abducted daughter Rubaiyya.

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