KL NEWS NETWORK
SRINAGAR
The former Chief of RAW A S Dulat Sunday claimed that whatever he has written in his book “Kashmir: The Vajpayee Years” is as “close to the truth” as “he knows about the Kashmir”.
Talking to KNS over phone from New Delhi, he said: “If my book has hurt somebody I apologize. But I can say that whatever I have written about Kashmir is truth and I am witness to it from 1988 to 2014.”
“My idea was to write a true story on Kashmir. This is a witness account of the story that I have seen from 1988 to 2014. I was with Vajpayee and I saw certain things from the PMO’s office. I use to meet prominent people of Kashmir,” he said.
Asked that as it has come into the news that you have written in your book that Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) was the “formed Syed Ali Geelani and Mufti Sayeed” and that Mufti attained power n 2002 state Assembly elections “with the help of Geelani”, Dulat replied, “though I don’t feel it is true but everybody at that time agreed that Mufti got help from Jama’at-e-Islami and Geelani. I am talking only about the 2002 Assembly elections when nobody in the Centre was serious about Mufti. When his party was properly shaped it was expected that he will get five to seven seats but it took everybody to surprise when PDP got 15 seats in the Assembly elections. Then many people agreed that it was because of Jama’at and Geelani who helped him (Mufti).”
Asked that Geelani’s Hurriyat amalgam has alleged that Dulat has written lies to remain in news even after retirement, he said “if this would have been the case then why would have I wasted 11 years. I suggest Syed Ali Geelani to read the book properly and then issue such statements.”
The former spymaster revealed that from time to time money has always been used in Kashmir. “See when I left the government in 2004 people blamed me for giving money to the Kashmiri leaders and it was criticized by many. But I want to clear one thing that money has been always used in Kashmir even from Sheikh Abdullah’s time,” he said.
