Former RAW Chief AS
Dulat expose Kashmiri leaders
‘Delhi felt Mehbooba had militant links…Vajpayee reneged on promise to
make Farooq VP’
EX-RAW CHIEF AS
DULAT: ‘Mirwaiz ambitious but fears Pakistan; Vajpayee didn’t want Mufti to be
CM in 2002; Mufti’s dream has always been to defeat Farooq’
In
a startling revelation, former head of India’s intelligence agency R&AW, A
S Dulat, Thursday said the former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee was
against making Mufti Muhammad Sayeed the Chief Minister of Jammu and Kashmir
because of “grave doubts that his daughter Mehbooba Mufti had militant links.”
He
also said the chief of Hizbul Mujahideen, Syed Salahuddin sought a favour from
Intelligence Bureau (IB) that his son be given a medical seat in a college in
Kashmir which was agreed to.
In
a detailed interview to India Today this evening, Dulat—considered to be a
point-man in the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) when Vajpayee was the Prime
Minister—said in 2002, Vajpayee, then Prime Minister, advised Sonia Gandhi
against making Mufti Sayeed the chief minister. “This is because Delhi at that
time had grave doubts about Mehbooba Mufti. They believed she had links with
the Hizbul Mujahideen and Jamaat. As a result during a visit to Srinagar in
April 2003, Vajpayee insisted that Mehbooba should not be on the stage with him
and Mufti Sayeed,” Dulat said.
He
revealed that Vajpayee wanted to make Farooq Abdullah as Vice President but
reneged on the promise. “This was part of an idea Vajpayee had to make Omar
Abdullah Chief Minister of Kashmir whilst making his father Farooq Vice
President,” he said.
Dulat
claimed that Syed Salahuddin, the head of Hizbul Mujahideen and Jihad Council,
“once contacted the head of IB (intelligence bureau) in Srinagar (K M Singh) to
ask for a place in a medical college for his son which Farooq Abdullah, then
Chief Minister, arranged.”
“There
are frequent instances of IB and R&AW doing such favours for militants,
including those in Pakistan. In this instance it was part of what could have
been an attempt to lure Salahuddin back which didn’t succeed,” he said.
‘FAROOQ-DELHI DEAL’
Dulat
said the offer to make Farooq Abdullah Vice President happened at his Delhi
residence at a private dinner and was made on Vajpayee’s behalf by Brajesh
Mishra. Later, he said, Farooq told him that both L K Advani and Vajpayee had
reconfirmed the offer. “However, Farooq always had doubts whether Vajpayee
would fulfil this promise. He told me ‘I don’t trust them. I don’t trust
Delhi’,” Dulat said.
Ultimately,
Vajpayee reneged on the promise, because, Dulat said, “people in Delhi felt
Farooq was unreliable. They even suggested he would not spend time in the
RajyaSabha. The other problem was that Farooq becoming Vice President was part
of an arrangement whereby Krishan Kant would become President. When the latter
didn’t happen the promise to Farooq fell by the wayside. Farooq felt bitter. He
felt let down.”
‘SAXENA CALMED FAROOQ ADBULLAH’
Dulat
recounted in detail how the Crisis Management Group in 1999 mishandled the
hijack of IC 814.
Dulat
was a member of the CMG and head of R &AW then. He said they lacked focus
and leadership and, therefore, were unable to give orders for the plane to be
detained in Amritsar. They carried on debating and the plane flew away. He said
the CMG “goofed”. He said it bungled.
Dulat
recounted the “fury and anger” of Farooq Abdullah when he was informed that
three militants had to be released as part of the IC 814 deal. He said “Farooq
ventilated his anger for three hours and then stormed off to meet Governor
Saxena intending to resign. However, Governor Saxena calmed him down over two
glasses of whisky and Farooq, eventually, accepted the situation and agreed to
the release of militants.”
‘SALAHUDDIN CONTACTED IB’
Dulat
also recalled how on one occasion Syed Salahuddin, head of the
HizbulMujahideen, contacted the IB head in Kashmir, K M Singh, to help his son
get into medical school and how Singh approached Farooq Abdullah who did the
needful. Dulat said it’s not unusual for IB and R & AW to do such favours
for militants and “terrorists”. He said it often happens. “Sometimes it’s a way
of maintaining contacts.”
‘MIRWAIZ
AMBITIOUS, BUT LACKS COURAGE’
Dulat
also said Mirwaiz Umar Farooq “lacks political courage”. “He is scared he could
be killed, and scared of the ISI and Pakistan.”
“He
has a great future. He has a constituency. (But) because of the fact he has
been under threat… his father was killed. His uncle was killed. His family has
great concern for him. Pakistanis are holding his career back. I told my
friends in Pakistan that you are doing great disservice to Mirwaiz. He fears
for his life and fears Pakistan. But he has ambition.”
‘MUFTI WANTED FAROOQ AT DINNER’
Dulat
said Mufti Sayeed has a complex about Farooq Abdullah. “He is in awe of him.”
Dulat
said Mufti sees himself as socially inferior. “Mufti’s dream has always been to
defeat Farooq Abdullah.”
Giving
details of a dinner in 1995, which Mufti asked him to arrange so that he could
meet Farooq and improve their relationship, Dulat said, Farooq deliberately
came late making Mufti jittery and nervous. “This was Farooq’s way of showing
he was superior. It was one-upmanship.”
“However,
in apparent contradiction, in the mid-90s Mufti believed that the only person
who could restore democracy in Kashmir was Farooq Abdullah. This was when Mufti
was in limbo after the collapse of V P Singh’s government. At that point Mufti
regarded Farooq as the best future for Kashmir and India,” Dulat said.
ON EX-MILITANT FIRDOUS SYED
“There
was one Firdous Syed. He came over ground. He was very close to Shabir Shah.
After he came over ground, he came to New Delhi, met two Home Ministers, first
MrChawan, and then Mr Gupta. He asked now what for us. He said: ‘Mai to
abkahinka b nahiraha’… He wanted accommodation in political system. I went to
Farooq Abdullah and told him that he belongs to NC family. He was then
accommodated as MLC.”
ON AGRA SUMMIT
Speaking
about the Agra summit, Dulat said that a meeting L K Advani had with Gen
Musharraf the night before soured the atmosphere. “This is when Advani
surprised Musharraf by asking for Dawood Ibrahim. This took Musharraf back and
a shadow was cast thereafter on the Agra summit.”
However,
at Agra, Dulat said he was told by Brajesh Mishra that they were very close to
agreement. “As Mishra put it: ‘Yaar, hote-hoterehgaya … Ho gayatha, who toh.’
He
said Vajpayee and Brajesh were palpably disappointed. Dulat also said that
Ashraf Qazi, then Pakistani High Commissioner, told him that on three occasions
Jaswant Singh had rung the Pakistanis to say a deal was done. But it never
happened.
‘GUJARAT KILLING A MISTAKE’
Dulat
said Vajpayee in 2004, after losing the elections, told him that the Gujarat
killings of 2002 were “a mistake”. “Vajpayee’s exact words were: “Wohhamare se
galtihui”. Dulat said the pain and grief on Vajpayee’s face was clearly
visible.
‘MISHRA WAS POWERFUL THAN ADVANI’
Dulat
speaks at length about Brajesh Mishra and said he “virtually ran the
government” during Vajpayee’s prime ministership. He said Mishra was more
powerful than the home minister. He said this made for an uncomfortable
relationship between Mishra and L. K. Advani. He said Vajpayee readily
acquiesced to this power arrangement which made Brajesh Mishra more powerful.
‘MUFTI LOVES WHISKY’
In
the interview Dulat has revealed that Mufti Sayeed “loves his Black Label
Whisky”. He called him “a tippler” and said that once upon a time the Mufti was
called “Mufti Whisky”. Now, however, Dulat said the Mufti has given up
drinking. (AGENCIES)
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