New Delhi:
Proceedings of IC-814 hijack in 1999 was goofed up! In a daring statement, former chief of Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) A S Dulat has claimed that the response to the IC-814 hijack in 1999 was "goofed up" as no clear instructions were given to the police when the plane landed in Amritsar. He also claimed due to goof up the hijackers managed to take it to Kandahar in Afghanistan.
When the hijacking took place on December 24, the Crisis Management Group (CMG) "goofed up" the entire case by not immobilising the plane when it had landed in Amritsar, Mr Dulat said.
"No one was willing to take a decision and in that confusion no instructions were passed on to Punjab Police which had moved in its personnel. They carried on debating and the plane flew off," Mr Dulat said in an interview to Karan Thapar on his India Today TV programme.
Mr Dulat, a member of the Crisis Management Group, said as they agreed to release the three terrorists in exchange for the lives of the 155 passengers and the crew members to end the hijack crisis, he was deputed to talk to Mr Abdullah as two of the terrorists - Mushtaq Latram and Malulana Masood Azhar - were lodged in a jail in Jammu and Kashmir.
"He shouted at me for hours together saying this was a mistake being committed by the Centre. After he ventilated his anger, he stormed off to meet Governor Girish Chander Saxena with an intention to resign. However, the Governor calmed him down and Abdullah eventually accepted the situation and agreed to the release of terrorists," Mr Dulat said.
During the interview, he briefly mentioned his last meeting with the former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee in which the BJP stalwart had said "woh humare se galti hui thi (it was our mistake)" about the 2002 Gujarat riots.
Dulat, who headed the spy agency till 2000 before he was appointed as Special Advisor in Mr Vajpayee's office on Kashmir issue, says the former prime minister always believed that 2002 riots was a mistake and the grief was "clearly visible" on his face.
Speaking about various issues related to Kashmir, Mr Dulat said Rubayya Sayeed, daughter of current Chief Minister of Jammu and Kashmir Mufti Mohammed Sayeed, was never the target of militants in 1989.
"It was Saffia, daughter of Abdullah whom they wanted to kidnap. But as Sayeed become the Home Minister in the V P Singh government, they (militants) decided to take her hostage," he said, adding this was told to him by the terrorist who had planned the kidnapping.
Recalling his days as Advisor in the Prime Minister's Office, Mr Dulat, an IPS officer of 1965 batch of Rajasthan cadre, also said that there was a plan to make Mr Abdullah Vice President in early 2002 and Omar Abdullah Chief Minister of the state.
"The offer to make Farooq Abdullah Vice President happened at my residence at a private dinner and it was made on behalf of Vajpayee by Brajesh Mishra. Later, Abdullah told me that both Vajpayee and L K Advani had reconfirmed the offer," he said.
However, Mr Abdullah always had doubts whether the NDA government would fulfil this promise. "I don't trust them. I don't trust Delhi," Mr Dulat quoted Mr Abdullah as saying.
In another disclosure which Mr Dulat has mentioned in his book "Kashmir: The Vajpayee Years", he said that in early 1990s, self-styled Hizbul Mujahideen chief Syed Salahuddin had called local Intelligence Bureau chief K M Singh and sought his help in securing a medical seat for his son.
"Singh approached Abdullah, who was the Chief Minister, and the work was done," Mr Dulat said and maintained that these favours are extended always with a hope that they would be converted into a surrender of the militants.
