BJP released Masood Azhar from jail and sent him back to Pakistan, says Rahul Gandhi

Congress President Rahul Gandhi on Saturday said a previous government led by the Bharatiya Janata Party had let Jaish-e-Mohammad chief.

He claimed that the Congress party, unlike the ruling BJP, would not bow down to terrorists.

Azhar’s outfit had claimed responsibility for the terror attack in Pulwama in Jammu and Kashmir, in which 40 jawans of the Central Reserve Police Force were killed on February 14.

Ajit Doval, who is the National Security Advisor for the Modi Govt, escorted head of JeM Masood Azhar back to Pakistan. We are not like Narendra Modi, we don't bow down to terrorists: Congress President @RahulGandhi#NammaRahulGandhi

— Congress (@INCIndia) March 9, 2019

“A few days ago, our soldiers were martyred in Pulwama. I want to ask the Prime Minister a direct question: who is responsible for their martyrdom?” Gandhi asked at a public meeting in Karnataka’s Haveri district. “Wasn’t it the BJP government that released Masood Azhar from jail and sent him back to Pakistan?”

The government of India had to release Azhar and two other militants lodged in Indian jails to secure the lives of passengers held hostage on a hijacked Indian Airlines flight in December 1999. The man who negotiated with the hijackers was current National Security Advisor Ajit Doval, then India’s Intelligence Bureau chief. Doval was present on the tarmac in Kandahar, Afghanistan, when Azhar was exchanged for the passengers on board flight IC 814,Gandhi said.