New Delhi, Sept. 19 -- A year after Kashmiri separatist and then commander-in-chief of the Jammu Kashmir Liberation Force Yasin Malik was released from jail in 1994, he claimed to have met former PM Atal Behari Vajpayee.

"When I first met Atal Bihari Vajpayee (post my release in 1994), when he was leader of opposition in 1995. I was a young boy, your country had promised us to give us a democratic right but when we are asking for it, your forces are killing our people. In return his reply was so polite, he replied -- Yasin ji, kaache dhaage kaa hee sahi, hamare saath koi naa koi rishta zaroor rakhen (even if it is a fragile thread, do stay connected with us), and this had disarmed me."

This revelation is part of an affidavit submitted b...