'A proposal was made in the CCS that Jaswant Singh should go and bring back the hostages and it was agreed by the CCS. Let's put it more charitably as George Fernandes said, may be he has forgotten,' the former NSA said.

Giving details of the IC-814 hijacking and demands of the militants, Mishra said: 'They (hijackers) wanted the release of 36 terrorists and $200 million and also the interned remains of some terrorist buried in Kashmir. Each and every man (in the CCS) was opposed to the demand. Then there was a decision, a unanimous decision, that in order to save 160 hostages three terrorists will be released. No money, no interned remains (were given).'

Mishra said the CCS was meeting every day during the hostage crisis and 'the CCS took the decision that Jaswant Singh should accompany the terrorists to Kandahar'.

'Jaswant Singh proposed that he would go to Kandahar to bring back hostages. He explained that Indian representatives negotiating there had suggested that somebody senior should be there in case of some last minute problems. This he told the CCS. This was agreed to unanimously,' he said, adding that Advani was part of the decision.

Earlier in the day, Yashwant Sinha, who was so far silent on the sacking of Jaswant Singh last week, spoke out in his support for the first time Thursday, queering the pitch further for the party.

'It was not right for the party to take that decision,' Sinha, a former finance minister, told reporters. He said the BJP should not have taken such a decision for a leader 'who has served the party for 30 years'.

He said that former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee would have handled the present crisis in the party in a much better way than L.K. Advani.

Asked by NDTV whether he agreed with Gujarat's BJP government, headed by Narendra Modi, banning Jaswant Singh's book, Sinha said: 'The book should not be banned.'

Yashwant Sinha had quit all his party posts last month after writing a strongly worded letter to the BJP leadership saying, among other things, that instead of holding party strategists responsible for the poll debacle they were being rewarded.