Recalling the 1999 IC814 hijacking incident, Former Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah said it was the second time his father, National Conference Chief and the then J&K CM Farooq Abdullah, was ‘forced to release' prisoners on terrorists' demands. Abdullah noted that it was the kidnapping of former Home Minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed's daughter and subsequent negotiations which set an unavoidable precedent of releasing jailed terrorists ahead of the Kandahar hijacking.
Talking to the news agency ANI, the NC vice president also spoke about the execution of 2001 Parliament attack convict Afzal Guru and opined he doesn't believe any purpose was served by hanging him.
"I was nowhere on the scene," said Abdullah when asked about the terrorists' swap in the IC-814 Kandahar hijack. He recalled the "tough decision" his father had to make at the time. However, noted that it was the second instance Farooq Abdullah had put in such a situation.
"This is the second time my father was forced to release people. They used the Rubaiya Syed incident as the benchmark. They said when you could release terrorists for a home minister's daughter…is our family not precious? Why is it only she is precious to the country? Then if she is precious to you, our family is precious to us. So we set a benchmark that had to be followed," Abdullah told ANI on Friday.
The hijacking of Air India flight IC814 to Kandhaar in 1999 is currently a topic of conversation following the release of Anubhav Sinha-directed Netflix series "IC814: The Kandahar Hijack". it landed in controversy over concerns about the names of terrorists used in the series.
Looking back at Rubaiya Syed's kidnapping, the Jammu and Kashmir leader opined that at the time, the Government of India had an option to not negotiate with terrorists. "I think the Government of India, at the time of Rubaiya Syed kidnapping, had the option of not negotiating with terrorists. They chose to negotiate. After that, once you've done it once, then you have to do it again," Abdullah added.
On Afzal Guru's execution, Abdullah stressed that his government in Jammu and Kashmir had no involvement in the process. The National Conference leader said he would not have given a green signal as CM for Guru's hanging if state approval had been required, as it 'did not serve any purpose'.
"The unfortunate thing was that the Jammu and Kashmir government had nothing to do with Afzal Guru's execution. Otherwise, you would have had to do it with the permission of the state government, which I can tell you in no uncertain terms would not have been forthcoming. We wouldn't have done it. I don't believe that any purpose was served by executing him," he said.
On being asked whether his party would restore Article 370, which provided special status to Jammu and Kashmir, Abdullah said his party is not going to 'surrender' on the issue as it is part of Nationa Conference's ideology.
"Article 370 and the special status of J&K is part of the Nationa Conference's ideology. It's not something that we will surrender. But it's not something that this assembly will be able to do... A couple of government changes will be needed at the centre before we even begin to address this issue. It took the BJP decades to do this, and we are not foolish to think that we will be able to undo it in 5 years... It is not the only issue on which we are fighting the elections," he said.
"It's a long fight. When BJP was reduced to 2 MPs in the Parliament, did anyone believe that they would be in a position to do anything on Article 370 or the Ram Mandir? But things changed and it took decades to reach there... A court decision does not close the chapter... Court decisions can be changed... That being said, this issue cannot be resolved in the life of this assembly. This assembly is about giving us the assembly and the state that we want," Abdullah added.
When quizzed about the visit of US diplomats to Kashmir to meet him, he said, "No diplomats or the foreign media are allowed to visit J&K with the express permission of the Government of India... Any meeting that I had with the team of the US Embassy was cleared at the highest level by the government of India... It was surprising for me as well, that they got permission to meet me because the last time they came, they were able to meet only the LG and other Delhi-backed parties... Pakistan has had more influence here than America... Why don't we blacklist Americans as well? If the Americans are so detrimental to our national interests, then our national interests must trump all interests..."
Abdullah's interview came weeks before Jammu and Kashmir is scheduled to go for polls after a decade, in three phases on September 18, 25 and October 1. The results will be declared on October 4.