Congress President Rahul Gandhi on Saturday blamed the BJP for setting free Masood Azhar, chief of terror outfit Jaish-e-Mohammed, in 1999.

The JeM has claimed responsibility for the attack on the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) in Jammu and Kashmir's Pulwama district on February 14, killing 40 troopers.

Gandhi said the then Bharatiya Janata Party-led National Democratic Alliance government, headed by Atal Bihari Vajpayee, had escorted the terrorist to Kandahar in Afghanistan from an Indian jail.

"Congress won't bow to terror," he said.

JeM head Azhar and two other militants Mushtaq Ahmed and Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh were freed in exchange for hijacked Indian Airlines passengers by then External Affairs Minister Jaswant Singh in 1999.

--IANS

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