Rubaiya summoned in case related to her abduction

A Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) court in Jammu has issued summons to Rubaiya Sayeed, daughter of former chief minister Mufti Muhammad Sayeed, to appear before it on July 15 as a witness in the case of her kidnapping by Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF) in December 1989.

Yasin Malik who was sentenced for life by a special National Investigation Agency (NIA) court in New Delhi early this week after his conviction in a terror funding case is an accused in Rubaiya’s kidnapping.

Though the trial has been going on for the past many years, it is for the first time that Rubaiya who is the younger sister of former chief minister and People’s Democratic Party (PDP) president Mehbooba Mufti has received witness summons in the case.

She has been listed as a prosecution witness by the CBI which took the investigation of the case way back in early 1990.

Rubaiya, then 23 years old and doing medical

RUBAIYA, then 23 years old and doing medical internship at Srinagar’s governmentrun Lala Dev Memorial Women’s Hospital was waylaid by the JKLF cadres while she was returning home in a minibus on December 8, 1989. internship at Srinagar’s government-run Lala Dev Memorial Women’s Hospital was waylaid by the JKLF cadres while she was returning home in a minibus on December 8, 1989.

Her father Mufti Sayeed was serving as India’s first Muslim home minister in the Janata Dal government headed by V.P. Singh.

After days of negotiations between the captors and the Central government’s official mediators and some family friends of the Muftis, she was swapped with five jailed members of the JKLF Sheikh Abdul Hameed, Ghulam Nabi Butt, Noor Muhammad Kalwal, Muhammed Altaf and Javed Ahmed Zargar on December 13, 1989 evening. She currently lives with her family in Tamil Nadu.

The then Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Farooq Abdullah who had strongly opposed releasing any militants to secure Rubaiya’s release had later said that setting five JKLF cadres only gave fillip to militancy in Kashmir.

He had alleged that his government was threatened with dismissal by the Centre if the militants were not exchanged for Rubaiya.

Yasin Malik is among several JKLF members accused of conspiring or being actively involved in the sensational kidnapping which proved a watershed for militancy in the Valley. In 1999, three JKLF activists Shoukat Ahmed Bakshi, Manzoor Ahmed Sofi and Mohammad Iqbal Gandroo arrested for kidnapping Rubaiya were granted bail by the court after nine years.

HER FATHER Mufti Sayeed was serving as India’s first Muslim home minister in the Janata Dal government headed by V.P. Singh.