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Updated: May 04, 2019 11:56 IST

Congress president Rahul Gandhi on Saturday took a swipe at Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the issue of the listing of Jaish-e-Mohammad chief Masood Azhar as a global terrorist by raising the question of who had released the terrorist in 1999.

Saying that the strictest of action should be taken against Masood Azhar, he said, “Who sent Masood Azhar to Pakistan? Did Congress send him to Pakistan? Which government negotiated with terrorism? Congress didn’t send him there,” he said while addressing a press conference in New Delhi.

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“The reality is that BJP compromises with terrorism. Congress has never sent anyone to Pakistan and we never will,” he said.

Masood Azhar was designated as a global terrorist on May 1 by the United Nations Security Council. Masood Azhar was among the three terrorists who were released in 1999 in exchange for the passengers aboard flight IC-814 which was hijacked to Kandahar in Afghanistan.

“We deal with terrorism with a strategy, not with revenge,” Rahul Gandhi said while referring to the recent air strikes at Balakot in the wake of the Pulwama suicide bombing on February 14 in which 40 CRPF jawans lost their lives.

He said, if voted to power, his party would adopt a more stern approach in combatting terrorism than what the Narendra Modi government has displayed.