LK Advani knew about my going to Kandahar with terrorists: Jaswant Singh

Contradicting LK Advani, former External Affairs Minister Jaswant Singh has said the then Home Minister was aware of the controversial decision about his travelling to Kandahar along with three terrorists released in exchange for the hostages of hijacked Indian Airlines plane in 1999.

Singh, however, said Advani along with Arun Shourie were the two ministers who had opposed the decision which he had taken on his own and informed the Cabinet.

"He was in Cabinet (meeting)," Singh told PTI when asked whether Advani was aware of the decision.

Advani, then the Home Minister, has claimed that he was not aware of the decision that Singh was going with the terrorists.

Asked how he ended up travelling to Kandahar along with terrorists, Singh said the decision was his own.

"I decided... So I informed the Cabinet that I am going. Cabinet did not tell me. Therefore I went," said Singh who has written in detail about the episode in his new book "India At Risk" but made no mention about how the controversial decision was taken.

He emphatically said "no, none at all", when asked if he regrets the decision for which he has been widely criticised.

In the book, he writes that the decision to release three terrorists was the "most demanding and emotionally the most draining period of my life".

Singh writes: "At first I stood against any compromise, then, slowly, as the days passed I began to change my mind." The Indian Airlines plane was hijacked during its flight from Kathmandu to Delhi on December 24 and the crisis ended with the hostages being released on January 1, 2000 in exchange for the three terrorists.