Rubaiya Sayeed kidnapping

Rubaiya Sayeed kidnapping

1989 kidnapping of Rubaiya Sayeed staged: ex-militant 14 November 2005 The Daily Times Iftikhar Gilani http://www.jammu-kashmir.com/archives/archives2005/kashmir20051114a.html New Delhi: A former militant commander has alleged as 'stage-managed' the 1989 kidnapping of Rubaiya Sayeed, daughter of former chief minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed, that triggered a chain of events leading mass uprising and then militancy in Held Kashmir. Hilal Ahmed War, now chairman of the People's Political Party (PPP), in his yet to be released book 'The Great Disclosures - Secrets Unmasked' has claimed that kidnappers, including JKLF Chairman Mohammad Yasin Malik, worked hand-in-gloves with Mufti, then union home minister, through some Indian intelligence operatives. Written in poor English, the book is full of 'sensational' but unsubstantiated claims like the role of former Indian prime minister Atal Behari Vajpayee and former deputy prime minister LK Advani in the killing of Mahatma Gandhi and the conspiratorial death of Jawaharlal Nehru. The book also talks of a plot to assassinate former chief minister Dr Farooq Abdullah. Discussing the kidnapping of Rubaiya Sayeed, War says an intelligence mole, Mian Sarwar, staged the 'drama' at the behest of Mufti Mohamamad Sayeed through Yasin Malik in collaboration with late Dr Abdul Ahad Guru. He claims that a secret meeting of Mian Sarwar, Malik and Dr Guru was held in the first week of December 1989 at the residence of then director general of police, Ghulam Jeelani Pandit. The purpose of kidnapping, he said, was to pave way for the removal of Dr Farooq Abdullah as chief minister and putting the state's reins in the hands of Jagmohan as the governor. The writer claims that he was unmasking the misdeeds of several leaders and bureaucrats of Jammu and Kashmir through his book. Tracing events of the Muslim United Front's (MUF) decision to participate in much-maligned 1987 assembly elections, War has said that Molvi Abbas Ansari, convener of the Front and presently a senior Hurriyat leader, was secretly working with Indian Intelligence agencies. The book has also cast shadow on Mohammad Saleem Beig, director general of the Jammu and Kashmir Tourism, and Riyaz Ahmed Bedar, currently senior superintendent of police (SSP) for counter intelligence in Kashmir Division. War claims that Beg and Abdul Rashid Dar were Intelligence Bureau's moles to keep a watch on the activities of then plebiscite front stalwart Mirza Mohammad Afzal Beg. Unveiling a plan to kidnap the then governor of Maharashtra in October 1975, at a function in Kashmir University, the book says that arms and ammunition for the purpose had been stacked in the room of Bedar. Though disregarding almost all political leaders except for himself, War has, however, pitched in for GM Shah, former chief minister and brother-in-law of Dr Farooq Abdullah. During his chief minister-ship from 1984 to 1986, his party leaders worked hard to 're-activate' and 're-energise' pro-plebiscite activists to prepare them for a final battle. The plan was to capture majority of seats in the assembly in the mid-term poll and nullify the accession document in order to create a constitutional crisis. The plan, however, was leaked to the IB, who ensured a defeat of GM Shah's National Conference in the 1984 parliamentary polls, the run up for the mid-term poll. War said that he along with Yasin Malik worked as polling agents for Shah's candidates in that election. The book has not even spared Mirwaiz Umar Farooq-led Awami Action Committee. War maintained that its founder, late Mirwaiz Farooq, along with Maulana Syed Maoudi and Ghulam Mohiuddin Qarra played the role of 'traitors' and foiled the 1965 action of 'commandoes'. Believing that Jamaat-e-Islami has exploited religion, War has targeted late Mirwaiz, saying, 'he always demonstrated complete neutrality in the era of struggle.' He has said that Molvi Farooq was arrested in 1965 not because of his role in the freedom struggle but to protect him from commandos, who were baying for his blood for his 'treachery'.

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