'PM also responsibile for terrorists release'

Under persistent attack on the Kandahar hostage issue, Bharatiya Janata Party leader Jaswant Singh on Wednesday sought to make the Congress an equal partner for the blame saying the decision to release three terrorists was taken at an all-party meeting in which Manmohan Singh had participated as the Leader of Opposition.

"It was a national decision, not a single party decision," the former External Affairs Minister said in Rajya Sabha referring to the release of three dreaded militants in exchange for 156 hostages aboard the hijacked Indian Airlines plane.

He said after the hijacking of the plane on December 24, 1999, the then Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee had convened an all-party meeting in which Dr Singh had participated as Leader of Opposition.

The decision to release militants was taken at the meeting, Jaswant Singh claimed. He was responding to the Prime Minister's statement that a minister accompanying terrorists was a "shameful" act.