Rubaiya Sayeed Case: Unfolding How India’s Home Minister’s Daughter Was Kidnapped 35 Years Ago

The CBI has arrested Shafat Ahmad Shangloo in the 35-year-old Rubaiya Sayeed kidnapping case, in which the daughter of then Home Minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed was abducted by JKLF militants. Rubaiya was released after the government met the kidnappers’ demands, and the case, still ongoing in the TADA court, has now seen charges framed against 10 accused, including Yasin Malik.

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has made an arrest in the decades-old kidnapping of Rubaiya Sayeed, daughter of former Union Home Minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed. The agency has taken into custody Shafat Ahmad Shangloo, a resident of Srinagar’s Nishat area, who had been wanted for 35 years.

According to the CBI, Shangloo was a member of the Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF) and allegedly worked closely with its chief Yasin Malik, helping manage the organisation’s finances. Investigators believe he conspired with Malik to abduct Rubaiya in 1989. A reward of ₹10 lakh had been announced for his capture.

In a statement, the CBI said: “The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has arrested an absconder, Shafat Ahmed Shangloo, wanted in a 35-year-old CBI case relating to the kidnapping of Dr Rubiya Sayeed, D/o Shri Mufti Mohd. Sayeed, ex-Home Minister. He will be produced before the TADA Court, Jammu, within the stipulated time as per law.”

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The arrest has renewed focus on one of the most dramatic episodes in India’s security history, the kidnapping of a Union Home Minister’s daughter, an incident that set several future events in motion.

The Abduction That Shocked India

On 8 December 1989, just days after Mufti Mohammad Sayeed assumed office as India’s first Muslim Home Minister in the VP Singh government, his 23-year-old daughter Rubaiya was returning home from her internship at Srinagar’s Lal Ded Maternity Hospital.

Travelling in a minibus, she was barely a few hundred metres from her residence in Nawgaon when four armed militants stopped the vehicle. She was forced out, bundled into a Maruti car, and taken to an undisclosed hideout. Hours later, an anonymous caller informed the Home Minister that his daughter had been kidnapped.

The abductors, linked to the Yasin Malik-led JKLF, demanded the release of five jailed militants. A case was immediately filed at Srinagar’s Saddar Police Station under Section 364 of the Ranbir Penal Code, TADA provisions, and the Arms Act.

The VP Singh government attempted negotiations for a short period. Under mounting pressure and with no breakthrough, it agreed to the militants’ demands on 13 December 1989. Rubaiya was released that evening. This was widely believed to be the first time the Indian government had agreed to a hostage-for-terrorist swap.

Political Fallout And Long Shadows

The decision divided political opinion. Then Jammu & Kashmir Chief Minister Farooq Abdullah strongly opposed the exchange, warning that it would have long-term consequences.

His son, Omar Abdullah, later said the incident became a precedent during the IC-814 hijacking in 1999. “This is the second time my father was forced to release people,” Omar said, explaining that the families of the IC-814 hostages cited the Rubaiya episode when urging the government to free terrorists.

He added, “Even if they had taken my daughter hostage, I would not have released a single terrorist,” quoting Farooq Abdullah’s 2015 remark.

Several of the militants freed in 1989 were later involved in the IC-814 hijacking, during which India released Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh, Masood Azhar, and Mushtaq Ahmed Zargar in Kandahar.

Decades Of Legal Proceedings

The case continues in the TADA court in Jammu, which deals with matters under the Terrorist and Disruptive Activities (Prevention) Act, 1987. Rubaiya, now living in Tamil Nadu, is listed as a key prosecution witness and has identified Yasin Malik as one of her abductors.

Despite the severity of the crime, charges were formally framed only in 2019, three decades after the incident. Earlier, in January 1999, the court granted bail to three accused, Showkat Ahmad Bakhshi, Manzoor Ahmad Sofi and Mohammad Iqbal Gundroo, noting they had spent nearly a decade in custody without trial. Malik himself had already secured bail by then.

In 2009, Malik petitioned the J&K High Court seeking to transfer the trial from Jammu to Srinagar, leading to a temporary halt in proceedings. The CBI later challenged the stay, and in 2021, the TADA court finally framed charges against 10 accused, including Malik.

Malik is currently lodged in Tihar Jail, serving a sentence from a 2023 NIA court judgment in a terror-funding case. Another eyewitness in the Rubaiya case has identified Mohammad Zaman as one of the militants involved in the abduction.