Then 23, Rubaiya Sayeed, daughter of former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed, was kidnapped by four men in Srinagar on 8 December. Five days later, she was set free in return for the release of five terrorists
Thirty-two years after she was abducted, Rubaiya Sayeed, the daughter of former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed and sister of Mehbooba Mufti, identified four of her kidnappers, including currently incarcerated Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF) chief Yasin Malik at a special Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) court in Jammu on Friday.
Advocate Monika Kohli, who appeared on behalf of CBI, told The Hindu, “When she made her statement (before the court) she categorically stated that he (Yasin Malik) is the one. She said he is the one and his name is Yasin Malik. When asked questions about Malik and photographs were shown, she specifically stated ‘I remember him categorically’.”
Kohli also added that 56-year-old Sayeed identified Malik as her main abductor. “Ms. Sayeed told the court that he (Malik) was the one who stated ‘Mini bus seay jaab utarna tha tou isse nay kaha, chup chap utroo nahin tou ghaseetkar utaray gay (When I was brought down from the mini bus, he was the one who said ‘get down otherwise you will be dragged out’).”
This is the first time that Sayeed, who now resides in Chennai’s Chetpe area, appeared before the court in the 1989 abduction case, which marked a watershed moment in Kashmir’s militancy problem.
The 1989 kidnapping
On 8 December 1989, as a newly-appointed Union Home Minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed was explaining the nuances of the Kashmiri psyche to juniors, his daughter Rubaiya, stepped out of the Lalded Memorial Women’s Hospital on Srinagar’s Iqbal Park Road, where she was an intern.
She boarded a local transit van, JKF 677 — coming from Lal Chowk and headed home for Nawgaon on the city’s outskirts.
However, her daily ride turned into a nightmare when four men stopped the vehicle, held Rubaiya at gunpoint and packed her into a blue Maruti outside. The operation took 20 to 25 minutes.
News of 23-year-old Rubaiya’s kidnapping was broken to her family by an unidentified caller about two hours later. In the phone call, the caller demanded the release of five JKLF terrorists from prison — Abdul Hameed Sheikh, Ghulam Nabi Bhat (brother of JKLF founder Maqbool Bhat), Noor Mohammad Kalwal, Mohammad Altaf and Javed Ahmad Zargar.
As Mufti received news of his daughter’s abduction, visitors began pouring in — the first among many to be Prime Minister VP Singh, Union Energy Minister Arif Mohammed Khan and Tourism and Commerce Minister Arun Nehru.
Release of terrorists
As news broke out of Rubaiya’s abduction, the then Chief Minister Farooq Abdullah rushed back home, cutting short his London visit.
The Centre too sent a delegation, comprising IK Gujral, Arif Mohammed Khan, and MK Narayanan to Srinagar to deal with the crisis.
After five agonising days after many attempts, the release of Rubaiya was secured at the cost of the discharge of the five terrorists.
On 13 December Rubaiya Sayeed was set free just two hours after the Centre released the five jailed terrorists.
An India Today report mentions that at 3.04 pm, two Ambassador cars halted in downtown Srinagar and five dishevelled men emerged. One of them limped, leaning on two of the others. They got into two waiting auto-rickshaws, which disappeared into the bylanes.
An hour later, Zafar Meraj, a well-connected journalist, received a telephone call from the Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF) spokesman, Javed Ahemed Mir. The voice was excited: “We have received our boys. It’s good. The girl will be with her parents soon.”
Reports state that Chief Minister Dr Farooq Abdullah was dead against giving in. But the Centre had more or less decided to free the terrorists.
Rubaiya Sayeed with her father Mufti Mohammed after her release. Image Courtesy: @IndiaHistorypic/Twitter
Aftermath
When the terrorists were released, reporters at the time said that there was “great excitement” and euphoria on the streets of Kashmir.
Lakhs of people took to streets in support of terrorists and in opposition to India, where they raised anti-India slogans.
Harinder Baweja wrote in Hindustan Times that slogans of ‘hum kya chahte, azadi‘ (we want freedom) and ‘Jo kare khuda ka khauf, utha le Kalashnikov.’ (Those who fear God, should pick up the Kalashnikov) rang loud in the streets.
Journalist Aasha Khosa in a report published by Rediff.com wrote, “There was no sympathy for Rubaiya. The people were all with the militants.”
She said the outburst on streets drove home the popular support for militancy.
She added, “The kidnapping was a shock. The security personnel did not have a clue. Till then everyone was treating militancy as a joke. People used to say, ‘hey, my cousin has become a militant, he has a gun now’. The Rubaiya episode changed all that. It made people realise that there was major trouble in Kashmir.
“When the militants were released, there was celebration all around. I have never seen so many people on the streets! They sang, danced and raised anti-India slogans.”
The incident also prompted a series of other kidnappings in Jammu and Kashmir and experts today state that it was a turning point in the state, now Union Territory’s, history.
The current case
A case of kidnapping was first filed at Srinagar’s Sadar Police station on December 8, 1989 under Section 364 of the Ranbir Penal Code (RPC), Section 3 of TADA and Section 3/25 of the Arms Act.
After being in cold storage for three decades, the matter was re-opened in January 2021 when a Terrorist and Disruptive Activities (Prevention) Act (TADA) court, Jammu, ordered framing of charges against Malik and nine others in the kidnapping.
The Hindu reports that the court had said it was of the considered view that “sufficient grounds were existing for drawing prima facie presumption that the accused have committed offences under Sections 120-B read with Sections 368 RPC and Section 3/4 of TADA Act”.
Besides the four identified by Rubaiya in court on Friday, the others involved in the case are: Ali Mohammad Mir, Iqbal Ahmad Gandroo, Javed Ahmad Mir alias Nalka, Mohammad Rafiq Pahloo alias Nana Ji alias Saleem, Wajahat Bashir and Showkat Ahmad Bakshi.
With inputs from agencies
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