india

Updated: Mar 11, 2019 05:55 IST

Congress chief Rahul Gandhi on Sunday asked Prime Minister Narendra Modi to tell the families of the 40 CRPF jawans killed in Pulwama suicide bomb attack as to who released Masood Azhar, whose Jaish-e-Mohammed group has claimed responsibility for the terror attack, from an Indian prison almost 20 years ago.

Taking to Twitter, he alleged that the current National Security Advisor, Ajit Doval, went to Kandahar to hand over the “murderer” Azhar.

Azhar, along with two other militants, was released by the Indian government in December 1999 in exchange for the passengers and crew of an Indian Airlines plane that was on a flight from Kathmandu to New Delhi when it was hijacked on Christmas eve that year and diverted to Kandahar in Afghanistan.

“PM Modi please tell the families of our 40 CRPF Shaheeds, who released their murderer, Masood Azhar? Also tell them that your current NSA was the deal maker, who went to Kandahar to hand the murderer back to Pakistan,” Gandhi tweeted.

At least 40 Central Reserve Police Force jawans were killed in the terror attack in Jammu and Kashmir’s Pulwama district on February 14 for which JeM has claimed responsibility.

In response to Gandhi’s tweet, the Bharatiya Janata Party posted on its social media platform: “You were probably busy playing video games when the whole nation was praying for safe return of hijacked passengers. Do you know that all decisions regarding the hijacking were taken at all-party meet? Remember Latif, handler of Pathankot, released by UPA as ‘goodwill gesture’?”