The reel claims only two terrorist releases in India's history but multiple earlier cases exist.

Masood Azhar was released under a court order. The ISI demanded Masood Azhar to rein in the rank-and-file. Masood Azhar too had publicly called for the assassination of Musharraf. [ 12 ] [ 27 ] The group was responsible for several attacks: the 2001 attack on Jammu and Kashmir legislative assembly , the 2001 Indian Parliament attack , the 2016 Pathankot airbase attack , the 2016 attack on the Indian Mission in Mazar-i-Sharif , the 2016 Uri attack , and the 2019 Pulwama attack , each of which has had strategic consequences for India–Pakistan relations . [ 37 ] The released prisoners were escorted to Pakistan by the ISI, [ 33 ] and Masood Azhar was chosen to head the new group Jaish-e-Mohammed. Raman , Jaish-e-Mohammed is viewed as the "deadliest" and "the principal Islamic terrorist organisation in Jammu and Kashmir". - en.wikipedia.org (2005-03-20) Fact is that it is the Modi government that has systematically endangered our internal security. The BJP should also tell people under whose regime Azhar was freed. It was only after his release in 1999 that he emerged as such a big threat to India. It was only after his release in 1999 that he emerged as such a big threat to India,” Congress spokesperson Rajeev Shukla said at a press conference here. Chidambaram, in a series of tweets, too pointed out that Azhar was released in 1999 under the Vajpayee government. The Congress also pointed out that Pulwama and Jammu and Kashmir were delinked by the UN Security Council while declaring Azhar as a global terrorist. - The Hindu (2019-05-02) Atal Bihari Vajpayee government released the three terrorists They were "released" on December 30, 1999 but the "court having judicial custody was informed only on January 3, 2000 and it upheld the fait accompli on January 29, 2000 after passing strictures", he says. The release of three dreaded terrorists in exchange of hijacked Indian Airlines passengers in Afghanistan's Kandahar in 1999 is the "worst capitulation" to terrorists in India's modern history, says BJP MP Subramanian Swamy. Over the years, the Opposition has been alleging that the NDA government "surrendered to terrorists" in 1999, but the saffron party has been maintaining that it was a "necessity" at that time as the Vajpayee dispensation had to save the lives of so many people. "The release of three hardcore terrorists from jail in December 1999, including Mohammed Azhar of Jaish-e-Mohammed, for release of hijacked Indian Airlines passengers in Kandahar, in Afghanistan is an example of such a disastrous capitulation," he writes. At least 154 passengers and crew were held hostage for eight days and the stand-off ended when hardcore terrorists Masood Azhar, Omar Sheikh and Mushtaq Ahmad Zargar were released and the then external affairs minister Jaswant Singh took them on a special plane to Kandahar. He says the whole Kandahar episode proves that we should "never negotiate with terrorists and never yield". "Moreover, the terrorists were escorted by a senior minister on the PM's special Boeing all the way to Kandahar as royal guests instead of being shoved across the Indo-Pakistan border. - The Hindu (2021-09-12) Senior Intelligence Bureau (IB) official Ajit Doval did the talking with the hijackers on behalf of the negotiating team headed by Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) Joint Secretary Vivek Katju. The delegation was simply presented with two options: that India release Azhar along with four others from the list of 36 or three militants demanded by the hijackers. - India Today (2024-09-03) India’s main opposition Congress party said that, despite being 'accused of plotting terrorist acts, VanDyke was allowed to return home from New Delhi VanDyke, who runs a Washington, DC-based consultancy that says it provides “free security consulting, training, supplies and other services to vulnerable populations”, was detained in March by Indian authorities, along with six Ukrainian nationals who were also released on Saturday. - Al Jazeera (2026-09-28)

From reporting

• ↗Opinion: That episode remains a legitimate subject of scrutiny: What decisions were made, who made them, and what were the long-term consequences?

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