JAMMU, Dec 14: Separatist leader Yasin Malik and his associate Rafiq Pahloo appeared before a special court here on Thursday in relation to the 1989 abduction of Rubaiya Sayeed via video conference. Three witnesses, including former president of the Kashmir Bar Association Mian Abdul Qayoom, did not show up. The special TADA court granted Pahloo one last chance to object to an application to have his bail revoked in two cases from 1990: one involving the abduction of Rubaiya Sayeed, the daughter of Union home minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed, and another involving the deaths of four Indian Air Force (IAF) officers.Four witnesses were called to testify in front of the special court. Of them, Mian Qayoom did not show up and provided a medical certificate indicating his hospital admission. Another eyewitness, identified as number 23, is allegedly deceased. Both testified in the case of Rubaiya Sayeed’s kidnapping, according to Senior Public Prosecutor S K Bhat. According to Bhat, the court had called two witnesses in the 1990 terror attack in Srinagar that resulted in the deaths of IAF personnel. However, the witnesses were unable to show up due to health issues, so the witnesses had to come from outside the area.According to Bhat, Malik, the leader of the Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF), and Pahloo appeared in court via video conference. The case of the IAF personnel’s murder on January 18 and the Rubaiya Sayeed case the following day would be rehearsed by the court. According to Bhat, the court granted Pahloo one final chance to object to an application to have his bail revoked. The court has consented to call potential witnesses.In August, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) filed a request to the court to revoke Pahloo’s bail in both cases, claiming that he had engaged in separatist activities and had therefore broken the terms of his release. In November, two witnesses, identified as 24 and 25, were questioned. According to Bhat, they validated the prosecution’s case and named the defendant, Ali Mohammad Mir. Mir, the main defendant in the kidnapping case,They kept her in a guesthouse after bringing Sopore from Srinagar. Malik, who is being held in Delhi’s Tihar Jail for a period of time related to a terror-financing case, was not physically present in court because of a directive from the Union Ministry of Home Affairs limiting his freedom of movement. According to Bhat, Pahloo was arrested for reviving the terrorist apparatus in the Kashmir valley and is currently being held at the Central Jail in Srinagar.Pahloo, also known as “Nanaji,” was one of the ten terrorists detained in July from a hotel in connection with an alleged plot to resurrect the Hurriyat Conference, a separatist amalgam, and the outlawed JKLF in the valley. In both cases, Malik and numerous others have already been charged separately by the special Terrorist and Disruptive Activities (Prevention) Act court. On January 11, 2021, the court framed the charges against Malik, Pahloo, and eight other people in the Rubaiya Sayeed abduction case from 1989.
