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M Shakeel Ahmed in Kandahar
Yashwant Sinha became the first Indian external affairs minister on Monday to visit the Afghan town of Kandahar, nearly three years after his predecessor flew in to hand over three terrorists to end the Indian Airlines hijacking crisis and observed it was a 'bad dream' India and Afghanistan wanted to forget.
"What happened three years ago was a bad dream they (Afghanistan) want to forget and we want to forget," Sinha said, when asked how he would characterise his visit to Kandahar where Jaswant Singh had come in December 1999 to hand over three terrorists in exchange for the lives of the passengers of the hijacked aircraft.
Sinha was talking to newsmen after holding talks with Gul Agha Sheikh, governor of Kandahar, a bastion of the Taliban militia till December last year.
"There is a desire to re-build relationship with India," he added.
Sinha quoted the Kandahar inspector general of police saying that what happened three years ago was 'shameful'.
"We should not really blame the people of Kandahar for what happened three years ago though they (hijackers) were the desperate people. The hijackers were terrorists who happened to bring the hijacked people here and that memory is best erased and we should begin afresh," Sinha said.
Sinha also announced that India would open its fourth diplomatic mission in Afghanistan in Kandahar after Kabul, Mazar-e-Sharif and Herat.
The Indian Consulate General's office started functioning in Mazar-e-Sharif on Sunday and the Herat office is expected to start operating later this month.
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