New Delhi, Aug 22 (PTI) : Breaking his decade-long silence, former External Affairs Minister Jaswant Singh on Friday sought to embarrass L K Advani by saying he ''covered'' up for him when he had said that the former Home Minister was not aware that he was going to Kandahar with three terrorists during the 1999 hijack episode. 

 
Singh said Advani was aware of the decision to release the terrorists in exchange for over 160 hostages kept in the Indian Airlines plane that was hijacked. “Yes, he did,” Singh told a private news channel when asked whether Advani knew that Singh was going to Kandahar with the three terrorists.

There has been a controversy on the issue with Advani claiming a few years ago that he was not in the know of Singh going on a plane with the three dreaded terrorists to Kandahar.

Singh was asked why he had said during the election campaign that Advani did not know that he was going to Kandahar and whether he covered up for Advani. “I’m sorry I did,” he said when pointedly told that this was a serious thing.

“I tried to cover it. I treated it as part of my continuing sense of commitment,” he said. Asked whether he regretted covering for him, Singh said: “I don’t regret because that was the step I had taken. But it was part of an election campaign... I was being very conservative with truth.”