Another Rubaiya Sayeed abduction accused identified in court

Jammu, November 2

During a fresh hearing in connection with the 1989 abduction of Rubaiya Sayeed, the daughter of the then Union home minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed, two eyewitnesses identified another accused, Ali Mohammad Mir, in a special court in Jammu on Thursday. Separatist leader Yasin Malik and his associate Rafiq Pahloo too appeared during the hearing via videoconferencing.

Senior Additional Advocate General and Chief Prosecutor of the CBI, Monika Kohli, said the next date of hearing is December 14. “In the 1989 Rubaiya Sayeed abduction case, two witnesses were examined. They identified one Ali Mohammad Mir,” she said.

Ali Mohammad Mir is the prime accused after Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF) chief Yasin Malik. Mir had allegedly taken Rubaiya Sayeed in his car to Sopore from Srinagar and kept her at a guesthouse. Yasin Malik and Pahloo appeared via videoconferencing.

Malik was not produced physically due to an order of the Union Ministry of Home Affairs, restricting his movement. He is presently lodged in Tihar Jail in Delhi where he is serving a jail term in a terror financing case. Pahloo is lodged in the Central Jail, Srinagar, following his arrest for reviving the terrorist apparatus in the Kashmir valley. Pahloo, alias Nanaji, was among the 10 terrorists arrested in July from a hotel in a case related to a conspiracy to revive the banned JKLF and separatist amalgam Hurriyat conference in the Valley.

Meanwhile, in another case of killing of four Indian Air Force (IAF) personnel in a terrorist attack in Srinagar in 1990, the court had summoned a witness for identification but he could not appear. The next date for the hearing has been scheduled on December 14.

The Terrorist and Disruptive Activities (Prevention) Act court has already framed charges separately against Malik and several others in both cases. The charges against Malik, Pahloo and eight others in Rubaiya case were framed on January 11, 2021.

Yasin malik attends hearing via video link

• Separatist leader Yasin Malik and his associate Rafiq Pahloo appeared during the hearing via videoconferencing.
• During the hearing, the witnesses identified Ali Mohammad Mir, who had allegedly kept Rubaiya at a guesthouse in Sopore.