‘Ex-CM Farooq Abdullah wanted to resign over decision to release terrorists in 1999’.

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.

Mr. Dulat said the former Chief Minister Farooq Abdullah wanted to resign over the Union government’s decision to release terrorists during the IC-814 hijack in 1999.

In the book titled Kashmir: The Vajpayee Years, Mr. Dulat, who had been a police officer with the Intelligence Bureau for three decades, chief of RAW from 1999-2000, and subsequently a special adviser on Kashmir in Prime Minister Vajpayee’s office, has made several explosive claims about the period.

“Ms. Mehbooba’s links and the support she received from the Jamaat-e-Islaami and the Hizbul Mujahideen during the 2002 elections when they [PDP] formed the government was well known at the time. In the PMO, it was talked about quite freely,” he told The Hindu ahead of the launch of the book.

In an interview to Karan Thapar’s “To The Point” programme on India Today TV, Mr. Dulat said Mr. Vajpayee and his National Security Adviser, Brajesh Mishra, had “grave doubts about Ms. Mehbooba” and refused to share the dais with her during a public rally in Srinagar in 2003.

He said Mr. Vajpayee had shared his concerns with Congress president Sonia Gandhi, warning the party against an alliance with the PDP in 2002. The Congress, however, disregarded the concerns. Ironically, it is the BJP that is in alliance with the PDP at present.

Asked about any lingering ties with the terror groups mentioned and the PDP, Mr. Dulat told The Hindu: “The Mehbooba of 2015 is more circumspect than she was in 2002, just as [PDP patron] Mufti Saheb is older, and more under pressure than he was then.” Ms. Mehbooba did not respond to The Hindu’s requests for her response to the allegations.

In his book, Mr. Dulat also writes of the “blunders” by the NDA government in the handling the IC-814 hijacking in 1999. When the Cabinet decided to give in to the hijackers’ demands for the release of terrorists like Masood Azhar and Omar Saeed Sheikh, the then Chief Minister, Farooq Abdullah, lost his temper and stormed off to see Governor G.C. Saxena. Dr. Abdullah wanted to quit, accusing the Centre of making a mess, but the Governor dissuaded him from doing so.

In another potentially explosive statement, Mr. Dulat told India Today TV that Mr. Vajpayee had disapproved of the handling of the Gujarat riots, and told Mr. Dulat “we made a mistake with Gujarat”.