CBI summons Rubaiya Sayeed in case related to her abduction

NEW DELHI:  A special CBI court on Friday summoned Rubaiya Sayeed, daughter of former Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Mufti Mohammed Sayeed, on July 15 in a case about abduction by terrorists in 1989. 

Sayeed, who lives in Chennai, has been listed as a prosecution witness by the Central Bureau of Investigation, which took over the probe in 1990. Kashmiri separatist leader Yasin Malik, chief of the banned Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF) who was recently sentenced to life imprisonment over terror funding charges, is an accused in the abduction case. 

This is the first time Sayeed has been asked to appear in the case relating to her abduction. She was kidnapped on Dec. 8, 1989, and freed from captivity after five days after the then V P Singh government, supported by the BJP at the Centre, released five JKLF  terrorists in her exchange.

The case was revived after Malik was picked up by the National Investigation Agency in 2019 on charges of terror funding. In January last year, the CBI, along with Special Public Prosecutors Monika Kohli and S K Bhat, framed charges against 10 people, including Malik, in the kidnapping case. 

The release of the terrorists in exchange of her freedom became a turning point in the history of unrest in the Valley, serving as a morale booster for terror groups.

Valley situation getting worse: Mehbooba 

PDP president Mehbooba Mufti on Friday said situation has worsened in the Valley as government “continues with its muscular policy of oppression and suppression.” Talking about the recent civilian deaths, she said, “They think this is a Muslim-majority place, if people are dying, let them. This will not improve the situation.”