KL NEWS NETWORK
SRINAGAR
Former Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister and National Conference president Dr Farooq Abdullah intended to resign from the CM’s chair over the release of militant commander Mushtaq Latram when an Indian air plane in 1999 was hijacked to Kandhar.
The Union government had agreed to release three militant commanders in lieu of the 155 passengers and the crew members members to end the 8-day-old hijack crisis which happened on December 24 that year.
Farooq felt the decision by the Union Government was a “mistake”.
Union government’s former Research and Analysis wing head, AS Dulat while recalling his meeting with NC stalwart Farooq, said, “he (Farooq Abdullah) 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,” Dulat added.
Dulat said as the Crisis Management Group (CMG) agreed to release the three militants, he was deputed to talk to Farooq in Jammu as two of them – Mushtaq Latram and Maulana Masood Azhar – were lodged in J and K.
“However,” Dulat further said, “the Governor calmed him (Farooq Abdullah) down and Abdullah eventually accepted the situation and agreed to the release of terrorists,” he said.
Dulat said this in an interview to Karan Thapar on his India Today TV programme.
