Advani knew decision to free terrorists, send Jaswant to K'har

New Delhi, Aug 27 (PTI) Adding to L K Advani's woes in
the midst of a crisis in Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), former
National Security Advisor of India Brajesh Mishra on Thursday
said that Advani, the former Home Minister was part of the
National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government's decision to
release three terrorists and to send Jaswant Singh to Kandahar
for securing hostages' release.

"The decision was taken by the Cabinet Committee on
Security which has, you know, five members- - Prime Minister,
Home Minister, Finance Minister, External Affairs Minister and
Defence Minister.

"....once those demands were whittled down to three
terrorists and no money and no interred remains (of some
terrorist), then there was a unanimous decision of the CCS
that in order to save the lives of 160 plus hostages and the
aircraft crew, it made sense to release these three terrorists
and get the hostages back," Mishra told Karan Thapar on
CNN-IBN.

When asked if it was an unanimous decision, he
replied, "Of course".

Q: Was Advani part and parcel of it?

A: Yes, of course.



Mishra, who is considered close to former Prime
Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, said Advani was also aware of
the decision to send then External Affairs Minister Jaswant
Singh to Kandahar to secure the release of hostages.

"Again the CCS met and Mr Jaswant Singh proposed that
he would go to Kandahar to bring back the hostages and he
explained that the Indian representatives who were negotiating
in Kandahar - diplomats, IB, RAW - they had suggested that
somebody should be there to take care of any last minute
complications. This he informed the CCS and they agreed to
send (him)," Mishra said.

When asked again if this was an unanimous decision,
Mishra replied in the affirmative.

On whether Advani was a party to the decision, he said
yes.

"Three members of CCS, George Fernandes (then defence
minister), Jaswant Singh and Yashwant Sinha (Finance Minister)
have already said this," Mishra added.

The former NSA clarified that initially no one was in
favour of any concession while dealing with the hijackers.

"To begin with, they wanted the release of 36
terrorists. They wanted $ 200 million. And they wanted the
interred remains of some terrorist. Nobody was prepared to
accept this. Each and every member (of CCS) was opposed to
agreeing to those demands," he said. PTI RC
SDE


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