 "Jaish leader Masood Azhar held for Pathankot attack")
Terror outfit Jaish-e-Mohammad's chief Maulana Masood Azhar claimed that soon after the Kandahar swap of 1999, the then Indian government had offered money to Taliban for re-arresting him, according to a report in The Indian Express.
This revelation was made by Masood Azhar in an obituary for the dead Taliban chief Mullah Akhtar Mohammad Mansur. According to The Indian Express, Mansur wrote under his pen name Saidi in the June 3 issue of Al Qalam Weekly, which is considered the Jaish-e-Mohammad's online mouthpiece. Mullah Akhtar Mohammad Mansur was killed a month ago in a US drone strike.
According to the report, the then External Affairs Minister, Jaswant Sinha, made the alleged offer to the Taliban chief Mullah Akhtar.
An Indian Airlines flight, IC 814, was hijacked by terrorists and as a part of the negotiated deal, and Masood Azhar along with Mushtaq Ahmed Zargar and Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh, were to be handed over to Taliban in exchange of the freedom of the passengers of the flight. The swap happened on December, 31, 1999.
Maulana Masood Azhar was arrested by the Indian authorities in 1994 when he was travelling to Srinagar. He was imprisoned for his terrorist activities in Jammu and Kashmir. Later, Harkat-ul-Mujahideen hijacked IC 814 on December 24, 1999. This was done to set Masood Azhar free. After six days of negotiations the Indian government agreed to release him in exchange of secure return of the flight passengers.
An Indian Airlines flight, IC 814, was hijacked by terrorists and as a part of the negotiated deal, and Masood Azhar along with Mushtaq Ahmed Zargar and Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh, were to be handed over to Taliban in exchange of the freedom of the passengers of the flight. The swap happened on December, 31, 1999.
Maulana Masood Azhar was arrested by the Indian authorities in 1994 when he was travelling to Srinagar. He was imprisoned for his terrorist activities in Jammu and Kashmir. Later, Harkat-ul-Mujahideen hijacked IC 814 on December 24, 1999. This was done to set Masood Azhar free. After six days of negotiations the Indian government agreed to release him in exchange of secure return of the flight passengers.
In the obituary, Azhar wrote: “Once I had a meeting with Mullah Akhtar Mohammad Mansur at Kandahar airport. This airport came under his ministry. I was part of a delegation from Karachi. Taliban had provided a plane to bring the delegation from Kabul to Kandahar where Mullah Akhtar Mohammad Mansur welcomed us. He took the guests to the VIP lounge… Mullah sahib made me sit next to him on the sofa. Then he told me that Indian foreign minister Jaswant Singh sat on the same sofa when he brought you to drop you at Kandahar.”
He further added, “… he (Mansur) started repeating the story of that day with a lot of pleasure. He said that Jaswant Singh had told him that our prisoners (Azhar, Zargar and Sheikh) would still be in Afghanistan and you arrest them and hand them over to us, hum aap ki hukumat ko malamaal karengey (we will make your government rich).’’ Quoting Mansur, Azhar wrote: “…’I (Mansur) told him that if you are able to return (to India) safely, even that would be a big thing.”
The claims made by the mastermind of the 2001 Parliament attack Maulana Masood Azhar have been shunned by the Indian authorities. A former chief of India’s Research and Analysis Wing (R&AW) at the time, A S Dulat said "money never came up at all” during that episode. “It is bunkum. Unfortunately, the claim is regarding a conversation between two men that nobody can verify because one is dead and another is in coma,” he said.
