Rubaiya case: Yasin Malik, aide appear in court; another accused identified

Separatist leader Yasin Malik and his associate Rafiq Pahloo appeared before a special court in Jammu on Thursday via video conference in connection with the 1989 abduction of Rubaiya Sayeed, the daughter of the then Union home minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed.

Two eyewitnesses examined in the court identified Ali Mohammad Mir as another accused in the case, senior additional advocate general and chief prosecutor of the Central Bureau of Investigation Monika Kohli told PTI.

She said the next date of the hearing was fixed on December 14.

"In the 1989 Rubaiya Sayeed abduction case, two witnesses were examined. They identified one accused Ali Mohammad Mir," she said.

Giving further details, senior public prosecutor SK Bhat told PTI that two witnesses -- numbers 24 and 25 -- were examined. They supported the prosecution and identified accused Ali Mohammad Mir, he said.

Ali Mohammad Mir, who is the prime accused in the kidnapping case after Malik, had taken Rubaiya Sayeed in his vehicle to Sopore from Srinagar and kept her at a guesthouse.

Bhat said Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front chief Malik and Pahloo appeared via video conference.

Malik, who is lodged in Delhi's Tihar Jail where he is serving a jail term in a terror financing case, was not produced in the court physically due to a Union ministry of home affairs order restricting his movement.

Pahloo is lodged in the Central Jail in Srinagar following his arrest for reviving the terrorist apparatus in the Kashmir valley, Bhat added.

He said that Pahloo, alias 'Nanaji', was among 10 terrorists arrested in July from a hotel in a case related to a conspiracy to revive the banned JKLF and separatist amalgam Hurriyat conference in the valley.

In a separate case connected with the killing of four Indian Air Force (IAF) personnel in a terrorist attack in Srinagar in 1990, the court had summoned a witness for identification but he could not appear as he in unwell, Bhat said.

The court has set December 14 as the next date of hearing in the IAF killing case and called for the summoning of witnesses for cross-examination, the prosecutor said.

The special Terrorist and Disruptive Activities (Prevention) Act court has already framed charges separately against JKLF chief Malik and several others in both cases.

The charges against Malik, Pahloo and eight others in the 1989 abduction case of Rubaiya Sayeed were framed by the court on January 11, 2021.