NC president questions release of Masood Azhar in 1999

National Conference president Farooq Abdullah Friday questioned the release of Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) founder Masood Azhar in Afghanistan by the then BJP government in 1999 in exchange of the hijacked Indian airlines flight IC-814 despite his opposition.

He strongly opposed the ban on the Jamaat-e-Islami (JeI) and said the time has come when banning should end, and meeting with these outfits should start.

"Who released Azhar (JeM founder) and who took him to Kandahar (Afghanistan)? The centre should reply. When I told them not to release Azhar, they did not listen to me (at that time). Today I am anti-national and they are national," Abdullah, who was the chiefminister during the hostage crisis in 1999 told reporters on the sidelines of a function here.

Azhar was arrested on February 11, 1994 at Khanabal Chowk in Anantnag district of south Kashmir but was released in exchange of passengers of IC-814 on December 31, 1999 by the then BJP government along with two other terrorists.

Asked about the ban on JeI, Abdullah said, "Banning is not the way out because the minute you ban anything they go underground and they become more vicious."
In response to another question on the centre's decision to ban JeI, he said "I am not in power now. Information on them will be available only with the intelligence and the governor who rules (the state) today. I have no intelligence input about them now."