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Rubaiya was legally bound to participate in identification: Mehbooba Mufti
The PDP chief reiterated on Sunday that her sister was only able to identify in court JKLF chief Yasin Malik in Rubaiya's 1991 abduction case.
People’s Democratic Party (PDP) president Mehbooba Mufti on Sunday said that her sister Rubaiya Sayeed was called as a witness in her abduction case and was legally bound to participate in the identification process which she could not refuse.
Talking to mediapersons in Srinagar after a party function, Mehbooba said Rubaiya was only able to identify Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF) chief Yasin Malik as “he is a public figure”.
Also Read | Rubaiya Sayeed only identified Yasin Malik in abduction case: PDP
“Rubaiya was called as a witness. She was called to identify somebody and she could not refuse. She went (to TADA court) because Yasin Malik has remained in public domain for much time and it was easy for her to identify him,” Mehbooba said.
Rubaiya, daughter of the then Union home minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed, identified Yasin Malik in the high-profile abduction case that took place in 1989, before a special court in Jammu on Friday.
Mehbooba said that Rubaiya could not identify others. “Thirty-two years have passed and a person forgets many things in those many years. Since it was easy to identify Malik, she did so. The remaining ones she could not. She fulfilled her legal responsibility,” she said.
On May 27, the TADA Court had summoned Rubaiya – the daughter of then home minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed, who was kidnapped by the Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front on December 8,1989 – in person. Rubaiya, who stays in Tamil Nadu,is listed as a prosecution witness by the CBI, which took over the investigation in the early 1990s.
The militants had sought the release of five arrested militants in exchange of Rubaiya and the government had conceded their demand. Rubaiya was eventually released December 13, 1989.
On January 11, 2021, the TADA court had ordered that the charges be framed against Yasin and nine others, including Ali Mohamad Mir, Mohammad Zaman Mir, Iqbal Ahmad Gandroo, Javed Ahmad Mir, Mohammad Rafiq Pahloo alias Nana Ji alias Saleem, Manzoor Ahmed Sofi, Wajahat Bashir, Mehraj-ud-Din Sheikh and Showkat Ahmad Bakshi.
The TADA court had in March 2020 also framed charges against Yasin and six others allegedly involved in the killing of four unarmed IAF in 1990 in Kashmir.
