India arrests suspect in decades-old kidnapping of home minister's daughter
Indian authorities have arrested a key suspect in the 1989 kidnapping of Rubaiya Sayeed, daughter of then-home minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed, marking a significant development in a case that shaped India's counter-terrorism policy for decades.
The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) apprehended Shafat Ahmad Shangloo from Srinagar's Nishat area, accusing him of conspiring with Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF) chief Yasin Malik in the abduction. Authorities had offered a reward of 10 lakh rupees for Shangloo's capture.
The 1989 incident that changed policy
The kidnapping occurred on 8 December 1989, just days after Mufti Mohammad Sayeed was sworn in as India's first Muslim home minister under the VP Singh government. Rubaiya, then a 23-year-old medical intern at Srinagar's Lal Ded Maternity Hospital, was abducted by four gunmen while travelling home.
The terrorists demanded the release of five associates in exchange for Rubaiya's freedom. After five days of negotiations, the government capitulated to the demands on 13 December, marking what observers consider the first such prisoner exchange in Indian counter-terrorism history.
This precedent would later influence the 1999 Indian Airlines IC-814 hijacking, when families of hostages cited the Rubaiya case as justification for prisoner releases. The government eventually freed three terrorists, including Masood Azhar, who later founded Jaish-e-Mohammed.
Political opposition and consequences
Then-Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Farooq Abdullah opposed the prisoner exchange, a stance his son Omar Abdullah later referenced when discussing the IC-814 incident. "Even if they had taken my daughter hostage, I would not have released a single terrorist," Farooq Abdullah stated in 2015.
Some released prisoners from the 1989 exchange later participated in the IC-814 hijacking, validating concerns about the precedent set by the government's decision.
Long legal journey
The case has proceeded slowly through India's Terrorist and Disruptive Activities Prevention Act (TADA) court system. Charges were only formally framed in 2019, three decades after the incident. The TADA court in Jammu framed charges against ten individuals in 2021, including Malik, who is currently imprisoned in Delhi's Tihar Jail following a 2023 conviction in a separate terror-funding case.
Rubaiya, now residing in Tamil Nadu, remains listed as a prosecution witness. She has identified Malik as one of her kidnappers, while another witness identified Mohammad Zaman as an additional perpetrator.
The arrest of Shangloo, described by authorities as a JKLF member responsible for the organisation's finances, represents a significant step in bringing closure to a case that fundamentally influenced India's approach to terrorist negotiations and hostage situations.