New Delhi: Backing former Research and Analysis Wing chief AS Dulat's claim of a "goof up" in 1999 Kandahar hijack by then NDA government, former National Security Guard chief Nikhil Kumar said the commando unit could have acted had there been a political will.
"The NSG was ready to neutralise the hijacking but could not make a move due to government's indecisiveness. The NDA government did not have any anti-hijacking policy. Farooq Abdullah was upset about the incident," said Nikhil Kumar
Dulat said when the hijacking took place on December 24, the CMG "goofed up" the entire case by not immobilising the plane when it had landed in Amritsar. "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," Dulat said.
Dulat said as the CMG agreed to release the three terrorists in exchange for the lives of the 155 passengers and the crew members members to end the 8-day-old hijack crisis, he was deputed to talk to Farooq in Jammu as two of them - Mushtaq Latram and Maulana Masood Azhar - were lodged in Jammu and Kashmir.
Dulat said that the then Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Farooq Abdullah felt the decision by Union Government to release terrorists was a "mistake".
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