The kidnapping of 24-year-old Dr. Rubaiya, the younger daughter of the then Union Minister of Home Affairs, Mufti Mohammad Sayeed, on 8 December 1989 was a turning point in the modern history of Jammu and Kashmir. Mishandling of the abduction opened the floodgates of terrorist activity. Within a week of Vishwanath Pratap Singh ministry taking over with BJP and left support, the most unfortunate episode led to a release of five terrorists including Ghulam Nabi Butt, the younger brother of Maqbool Butt, one of the founders of Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front(JKLF), despite opposition from the then Chief Minister, Dr. Farooq Abdullah. This led to a situation which boosted the moral of the separatists and terrorists in J & K. The last nail in the coffin was the release of five deadliest terrorists including Maulana Masood Azhar following hijack-drama of Indian Airlines plane in 1999 when Atal Bihari Vajpayee was the PM.
“As was the practice in such cases world over, I told the Cabinet that the least Mufti should do was to resign his ministerial post for some days instead of handling the issue himself being the Home Minister.”, tells the then Union Minister for Energy, Arif Mohammad Khan, recollecting days of national agony. Former Minister and a Supreme Court lawyer, Khan adds: “In 1980s, I remember some relations of the Israel Ministers were kidnapped. The Ministers concerned resigned and did not influence or interfere the investigation and negotiations to get their relatives released nor the authorities bargained to exchange the militants with the relatives of the Ministers concerned.” He stressed that Indian authorities should follow such precedents. Khan was a point-man of Indira Gandhi for Kashmir affairs as a Minister in her Cabinet from 1982 till her death in 1984. He created history by resigning as a Minister from Rajiv Gandhi government in 1986 following his differences with PM on Shah Bano Case. Even from those days Arif was keen on making efforts for justice to Muslim women.
Arif, though was not the member of the Political Affairs Committee of VP Singh Cabinet, was deputed to go to Srinagar along with I. K. Gujral, the then External Affairs Minister, to resolve the Rubaiya kidnapping issue with J and K government. At the time of the kidnapping Abdullah was away to London and was not keen to return so soon when he was conveyed by an IAS official, Ashok Jaitly, about the abduction. Jaitly insisted on his return via Delhi and after so much of persuasion, he returned, according to his biographer, Aditya Sinha. Sinha records in “Farooq Abdullah : A Biography” : “Farooq finally agreed. He took the first flight out and upon reaching Delhi met Mufti Mohammad Sayeed at his residence. Arun Nehru was also there, and they took him to meet the Prime Minister, V. P. Singh. They asked the Chief Minister whether Rubaiya’s freedom could be secured by the release of the five militants. Farooq told them that he could not take that decision there in Delhi; he would have to go to Srinagar, talk to his cabinet colleagues and officers, and then decide what the position was and what action should be taken.”
On reaching Srinagar and consulting his Cabinet colleagues and the negotiating team of the Chief Secretary, Moosa Raza, a Gujarat cadre IAS official, and IB officer in charge of the state, Abdullah felt that nobody should be released. To convince the Chief Minister to get the five militants released, PM V.P. Singh personally kept on calling up the Chief Minister repeatedly. Even the Cabinet Secretary, T.N. Seshan, telephoned Raza and shoted at him. “Why isn’t the state government releasing the five prisoners?”, he wanted to know. Farooq told Delhi that under no circumstances was he going to release those five, unless the Prime Minister of India issued specific instructions to that effect. Farooq came to know that Mufti had already roped in the “corrupt” judge of the Allahabad High Court, Moti Lal Bhat. Aditya notes: “He (Abdullah) would then have to pay the price for whatever went wrong afterwards because Farooq did not want to be the one who would take the rap.” Early morning, at 1 a.m., on 13 December, Prime Minister V.P. Singh telephoned Farooq. He told about the decision of just concluded Cabinet to release the five prisoners, but Farooq was firm. He knew the consequences and wanted the PM to explain to the nation. He went to bed but was awakened around 4 a.m. : he was informed that two cabinet ministers, Arif Mohammad Khan and I.K. Gujral along with the IB Director, M.K. Narayanan, were on their way to meet him. They reached at 5.30 a.m.
The Chief Minister called for Raza and the IB officer who explained the whole story. Arif supported Farooq’s contention not to release the prisoners. But Gujral had a specific message from the PM for the Chief Minister: “To ensure the release of Rubaiya, the five prisoners are to be released or we are to dismiss Farooq Abdullah as the Chief Minister.” Abdullah realized the seriousness of it. “He told Raza to make a note of the PM’s instructions : that the five militants were to be released, and Rubaiya freed. He detailed to the ministers what he thought would follow.”, noted Aditya in the biography. A 14-page note was sent to the Governor, Krishna Rao, and copy to the President of India.
Arif was kept in dark even by his colleague who conveyed to the PM that Arif was sabotaging the entire game. At this juncture, Khan made up his mind to resign from the Cabinet but was pursued by Arun Nehru not to embarrass newly formed V.P. government. The five militants were released at 3 p.m. and Rubaiya was released at 5.30 p.m. who reached her home at 7.30p.m.
While describing the situation in Srinagar after release of the five militants, Aditya adds: “At 3 p.m., the militants were released at Rajouri Kadal, in front of Mirwaiz Manzil, the headquarters of the Awami Action Committee. The crowd went wild; the euphoria was unmistakable. Women garlanded the militants, and distributed shirni(sugar cubes) and sang traditional Kashmiri folk songs. ‘Diwali’ was celebrated although one could not tell if the blasts came from crackers or weaponry. JKLF flags were hoisted all over Srinagar. There was no doubt now as to who was politically leading the Kashmiri Muslims- the symbols and signs were there for all to see.”
This first experience of a militancy-related kidnapping was mishandled and it was to set an example for kidnapping all over India. Farooq has proved right.
Next Column: Jinnah’s Contribution in making Hindu Bharat
( The writer is a Socio-political Historian. E-mail : [email protected] )
