Rubaiya Sayeed identifies terrorist Yasin Malik, 3 others as abductors in her 1989 kidnapping case

New Delhi, July 16: Mehbooba Mufti’s sister Rubaiya Sayeed has identified JKLF terrorist Yasin Malik as one of the abductors in her kidnapping in 1989. Apart from this, Rubaiya Sayeed also identified the other abductors connected with the case in a TADA court in Jammu.

 

Daughter of late former J&K Chief Minister, Mufti Muhammad Sayeed, on Friday appeared before the CBI court in Jammu as a prosecution witness in the case. Her release was managed by swapping four jailed militants when her father was the Home Minister in the V.P. Singh government. Malik has already been sentenced for life in a terror funding case, in which he admitted to the charges levelled against him by the prosecution.

 

 

 

The CBI lawyers stated that they recorded the statement of witness Rubaiya Sayeed in court in which she has identified Yasin Malik. The next date of the hearing is on August 23. According to senior advocate and PDP spokesperson Anil Sethi, Yasin Malik also appeared in the case today through video conferencing. He has also requested to physically appear in Jammu in this case.

 

 

Over 30 years after kidnapping, the TADA court had ordered to frame charges against Malik and nine others in the kidnapping case. Rubaiya Sayeed was summoned by the TADA court in her own kidnapping case to record her statement. Yasin Malik, who has been sentenced to life imprisonment in a terror funding case, had also been summoned by the court.

 

 

The National Investigation Agency (NIA) court in May this year awarded life imprisonment to separatist leader Yasin Malik in a terror funding case. The NIA court while sentencing Malik to life imprisonment also imposed a fine of Rs 10 lakh. He was sentenced to life imprisonment twice. NIA had sought the death penalty for the separatist leader who was convicted on May 19. Malik had told the court that he was not contesting the charges levelled against him.

 

 

The Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front had kidnapped Rubaiya Sayeed on December 8,1989. It should be noted that JKLF was led by Yasin Malik at that time. JKLF had kidnapped her on gunpoint and demanded the release of five jailed members of its members from jail. 23-year-old Rubaiya was working as a medical intern at Lal Ded Memorial Women’s Hospital at that time.

 

 

In a very controversial decision, the Farooq Abdullah led Jammu and Kashmir government at that time had agreed to the demands and had released the jailed terrorists. While Mufti Mohammad Sayeed’s other daughter Mehbooba Mufti joined active politics and went on to become the chief minister of the state of Jammu and Kashmir, Rubaiya Sayeed had been out of limelight after her release by the kidnappers on 13 December 1989.

 

Experts say The abduction was the watershed in the Kashmir insurgency.[8] Had the V P Singh government not buckled down, things would have been different," and add, "The JKLF would not have harmed Rubaiya due to public sentiment." It had set the stage for heightened terror and separatist activists in the region. It is notable that Farooq Abdullah had claimed he was threatened by the central govt with dismissal if the jailed militants were not released in exchange of the union home minister’s daughter.