Former R&AW chief A.S Dulat said on Saturday that he did not meet former J&K Chief Minister Farooq Abdullah on behalf of the government when the latter was in detention.
Dr. Abdullah was released by the J&K administration on Friday by revoking his detention under the stringent Public Safety Act (PSA). He was in detention for more than seven months.
Asked if his February 12 meeting with Dr. Abdullah could have triggered the release of the National Conference president on Friday, Mr. Dulat said: “I have no idea why he has been released now.”
Mr. Dulat asserted that it was his personal visit. “Obviously I couldn’t have met him without government clearance but nobody [in the government] helped and I did not go on somebody’s behalf. I just went as a well-wisher to enquire about his health,” Mr. Dulat told The Hindu .
‘Best news’
Earlier on Friday, Mr. Dulat said the decision to free Dr. Abdullah was “the best news he had heard”. “I hope this means the government has decided to rethink about the future of Jammu and Kashmir, and I hope the release of Dr. Abdullah is a sign of other measures of leniency in the state,” he had told The Hindu .
Last month, in the first sign that the government had softened its position, Mr. Dulat, who had worked closely with the former Chief Minister during his tenure, was granted permission to meet with Dr. Abdullah in custody at his home in Srinagar. Mr. Dulat denied reports that he carried any messages from the Central government to Dr. Abdullah, but said the permission to meet him came after months of the government refusing his requests.
However, according in an interview given to senior journalist Karan Thapar for The Wire , Mr. Dulat said that on February 9 he received a phone call from the Home Ministry saying he was free to go to Kashmir.
Mr. Dulat says this phone call would have happened with the knowledge and concurrence of NSA Ajit Doval and this means the NSA was fully in the loop, a statement issued by Mr. Thapar said.
“He [Dulat] revealed that the Intelligence Bureau in Srinagar provided transport to take him from the Srinagar airport to Abdullah’s residence at Gupkar Road and back to the airport.... Shortly after his return, he was rung by the Home Ministry to find out how the trip had gone,” the statement said.
