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| Farooq Abdullah takes Vajpayee, Advani by surprise | | Will Kashmir leader divulge 'classified' information? | | B L KAK
NEW DELHI, AUG. 28: Farooq Abdullah, the tallest among the Kashmiri politicians, is not an ordinary person. He is a 'repository' of many a top secret. Farooq Abdullah, who was Chief Minister of Jammu and Kashmir for two terms till his National Conference government was shown the door by the electorate during the 2002 Assembly polls, is in the possession of "highly classified" information.
And if there was any doubt about it, he himself set it at rest with his sensational revelation that former Prime Minister, Atal Behari Vajpayee, and his Home Minister, LK Advani, had compelled him to release Jaish-e-Mohammed founder, Masood Azhar, in 1999 after an Indian Airlines Boeing aircraft was hijacked by terrorists to Kandahar, Afghanistan. That Farooq is, like his late father, Sheikh Mohammed Abdullah, highly unpredictable was once again proved by his who-cares-for-you attitude towards his erstwhile political friends, Vajpayee and Advani.
As the Chief Minister of the National Conference government in J&K till 2002 Farooq Abdullah was they ally of the NDA government headed by Atal Behari Vajpayee. Farooq alone can answer the question: Why did he break his silence over the 1999 Kandahar hijack episode just the other day? The question, signifcantly, is curently being hotly discussed in the ruling and Opposition parties in the Union capital.
Farooq Abdullah, who is sitting member of the Rajya Sabha and patron of the Jammu and Kashmir National Conference, minced no words as he shook, literally, the two BJP stalwarts, Vajpayee and Advani, with the most serious accusation that they compelled him to set free terrorists towards the end of 1999. Farooq's revelation in the course of a media interview: Pressure from the Vajpayee government on him to relese terrorists in view of the hijacking of Indian Airlines plane to Kandahar in December 1999 was similar to the one he underwent exactly 10 years back after the abduction of Rubbaiya Sayeed, daughter of then Union Home Minister, Mufti Mohammed Sayeed.
Farooq, in an apparent bid to embarrass the Congres party's main political foe, the BJP, has let it be known that he had "serious reservations" to freeing Masood Azhar. He reiterates that Vajpayee and Advani compelled him to release him for the passengers aboard IC-814 that had been hijacked to Kandahar.
Significantly, Farooq Abdullah's revelation has come at a time when his National Conference and Sonia Gandhi's Congress party have re-built what analysts term as "working relationship". In fact, only last week, the concert between the two parties was witnessed in the Rajya Sabha when members of the ruling party latched on to an interview of Farooq Abdullah was seen as a precursor to a realignment of forces in the troubled State of Jammu and Kashmir.
While the first interview saw the former Chief Minister of J&K criticising the release of Masood Azhart in exchange for the hostages of flight IC-814, the second interview brought to the fore Farooq Abdullah's obvious gameplan to add fuel to the fire by charging Vajpayee and Advani with compelling him to release Masood Azhar. Faroq's critcism of the release of terrorists, particularly of Masood Azhar, is seen as confirmation of his resolve to completely separate himself from all links with the Opposition combine.
Political observers atach importance to the rapport the J&K Chief Minister,Ghulam Nabi Azad, shares with Farooq Abdullah. And at a time when indications are by no means uncertain that Farooq is needed by the Delhi-based Kashmir strategists, the possibility of the Kashmir Valley experiencing a fresh re-configuration of politcal forces is not ruled out.
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