(Image source from: Former RAW chief AS Dulat spills explosive info})
Former chief of the Research & Analysis Wing (R&AW), AS Dulat, who has been a critical member of former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee's team, has revealed that former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Farooq Abdullah and a former Cabinet Minister arranged a medical seat for a top militant's son. Salahuddin, the head of Hizbul Mujahideen and the Jihadi Council based in Pakistan has once contacted the head of the Intelligence Bureau in Srinagar, KM Singh, asking for a place in a medical college for his son. Abdullah, who was the state's chief minister, got this request implemented. Dulat said that there are frequent instances of IB and R&AW doing such favours to militants and terrorists, including those in Pakistan. "In this instance, it was part of what could have been an attempt to lure Salahuddin back, which didn't succeed," Dulat said n an exclusive interview to the India Today Television.
He said on camera that the then prime minister Vajpayee wanted to make Farooq Abdullah, Vice President of India and clear the way for Omar Abdullah to be the Jammu and Kashmir's chief minister. But he reneged on the promise.
The Atal Bihari Vajpayee government suspected Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) leader Mehbooba Mufti of having links with the Hizbul Mujahideen and of even accepting “help” from the Kashmiri terror group during the 2002 elections,” says former RAW chief A.S Dulat in his soon-to-be-released memoir.
Dulat claimed that Brajesh Mishra, the principal secretary to the prime minister and an NSA, "virtually ran the government". Mishra was more powerful than the then Union home minister LK Advani. Dulat said that the prime minister Vajpayee readily acquiesced to this power arrangement.
Mr. Dulat also told in the interview that Mr. Vajpayee had disapproved of the handling of the Gujarat riots, and told Mr. Dulat “we made a mistake with Gujarat”.
“The book is the story of Kashmir from the time I’ve seen it, essentially from 1988 to 2014. It ends on the day the election results were coming out. So it’s before the PDP-BJP tie-up. There are no great revelations in the book. It’s a story I watched from 1988 to 2014, and simply my way of looking at it. I may not be right,” Dulat said.
By Premji
