CBI arrests man in Rubaiya Sayeed’s 1989 kidnapping case

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Monday arrested a man in connection with the kidnapping of Rubaiya Sayeed, a daughter of then-Union Home Minister Mufti Mohammed Sayeed, in 1989 by terrorists.

Rubaiya’s kidnapping was a turning point in Kashmir’s terrorist movement that emboldened them to operate with impunity in Jammu and Kashmir.

The KDC news agency reported sources as saying that the man arrested has been identified as Shafat Ahmad Shungloo. He is a native of Srinagar.

Jammu-Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF) chief Yasin Malik is the prime accused in the case. He has more than 60 cases against him, including the murder of Indian Air Force (IAF) personnel. He is currently lodged in Delhi’s Tihar jail where he is serving a life sentence in a separate terror financing case.

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JKLF’s terrorists kidnapped Rubaiya on December 8, 1989, at around 3:45 pm in Srinagar, when she was returning to her home from Lal Ded Memorial Hospital where she was an intern. She identified Malik and three others as her kidnappers in court in 2022.

“This is the person and his name is Yasin Malik. He was the man who threatened me that he will drag me out of the minibus if I refused to follow their diktat,” Rubaiya told the court at the time.

Rubaiya was released five days later after then-Union government of VP Singh accepted terrorists’ demand of releasing five jailed terrorists — Abdul Hamid Sheikh, Sher Khan, Noor Mohammad Kalwal, Altaf Ahemed, and Javed Ahemed Jargar.

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‘The entire Valley was celebrating’

Journalists who reported in Kashmir at the time have said that terrorists had widespread support in the Valley at the time and lakhs of people openly cheered in the streets for Rubaiya’s kidnappers and terrorists who were released.

In an article for Hindustan Times, Harinder Baweja said the state government was absent and “the entire Valley was celebrating”.

“The Farooq Abdullah government in the state which had been forced to release five militants belonging to the Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front was near absent. The administration was gripped by fear as it watched its people take to the streets—in the thousands, sometimes even in the lakhs—shouting slogans of ‘hum ky chahte, azadi’ (we want freedom) and ‘Jo kare khuda ka khauf, utha le Kalashnikov.’ (Those who fear God, should pick up the Kalashnikov.),” Baweja wrote.

Baweja further wrote that the episode was a tipping point that tilted the scales in favour of terrorists.

Separately, journalist Aasha Khosa told Rediff News that “there was no sympathy for Rubaiya” and that Kashmir’s masses “were all with the militants”.

Khosa said that the episode was a shock to many as it revealed the extent of the popular acceptance and support that terrorists had.

Khosa said, “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.”