Congress leader Rahul Gandhi today tore into BJP's claims of being tough on terror by raking up the 'Kandahar hijack'Issue. Referring to the hijack of Indian Airlines plane in December 1999 during its flight from Kathmandu to Delhi,he said three terrorists were freed by the Vajpayee government. 22,000 people were killed in terror attacks during the six-year NDA rule.

Addressing a meeting at Kashipur, Uttarakhand, he said the then top functionaries of the BJP government, including Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, bowed to the wishes of hijackers while Congress always stood up to terrorists.He said NDA's top leaders from number one to five saluted the hijackers and asked them what do they want. Rahul Gandhi said money was also given to them. The terrorists were released and then External Affairs Minister Jaswant Singh went with them.

He said among the freed terrorists was Masood Azhar, who later floated Jaish-e-Mohammad terror outfit in Pakistan. He said the same terrorists carried out numerous attacks in India including the one on Parliament in 2001.

Reaching out to ex-servicemen, he said Congress has already granted them one-rank-one-pension, while BJP is still making the same promise in its manifesto.