Omar Abdullah Recalls 1999 IC814 Hijacking, Says 'My Father Was Forced To...'
(MENAFN- Live Mint) Former Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah recalled the 1999 IC814 hijacking incident on Friday - calling it the second time his father had been 'forced to release people'. He opined that the kidnapping of Rubaiya Syed and subsequent negotiations had created an unavoidable precedent ahead of the Kandahar hijacking.
"This is the second time my father was forced to release people. They used the Rubaiya Syed incident as the benchmark. They said when you could release terrorists for a home minister's daughter...is our family not precious? Why is it only she is precious to the country? Then if she is precious to you, then our family is precious to us. So we set a benchmark that had to be followed," Abdullah told ANI on Friday.
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The hijacking incident has become the focus of pan-India discussion in recent days due to the impending release of a Netflix series. 'IC-814: The Kandahar hijack' has been mired in controversy over its depiction of the hijackers' code names - prompting Netflix to update the opening disclaimer to the series earlier this week.
The Central government had also summoned the content head of the OTT platform seeking an explanation for the allegedly contentious aspects of the series.
A PIL seeking a ban on the series for not revealing the real identities of the hijackers was withdrawn from the Delhi High Court on Friday.
Also Read | 'IC814' web series content row: IB Ministry summons Netflix content head
Rubaiya Syed, the daughter of former Home Minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed, who was kidnapped by Kashmiri separatists in 1989. The Central Government, led by VP Singh, had released five jailed terrorists of the Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front in exchange for Rubaiya's safe release.
The National Conference leader however noted that the VP Singh-led government“had the option of avoiding negotiation with terrorists”. However, having opted to enter into discussions once, they were compelled to“do it again” when IC814 went missing.
(With inputs from agencies)
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