Why did it take Rubaiya 32 years to identify her abductors despite father-sister being CMs?

JAMMU: Finally, Rubaiya Sayeed has identified her kidnappers, including the abductor-in-chief Yaseen Malik after 32 years, seven months and seven days of her abduction on December 8, 1989, about 500 meters from her Nawgam home in Srinagar when she was returning from the Lal Ded Memorial Women’s Hospital in a local mini bus-six days after her father was sworn-in on December 2, 1989 as Home Minister of India, first Muslim and the first Kashmiri to don the mantle once bedecking legendary Sardar Patel.

In between all these years, months and days, Rubaiya’s father remained the Union Home Minister till November 10, 1990, Chief Minister of Jammu and Kashmir twice from November 2, 2002 to November 2, 2005 and March 1, 2015 till his death on January 7, 2016. Her elder sister, Mehbooba Mufti too remained the Chief Minister of the then state from April 4, 2016 to June 19, 2018.
Why it took over three decades to a terror victim to see the wheels of justice moving despite her kin occupying the highest political offices of Jammu and Kashmir? Why should it be only in the gubernatorial government that she gets the opportunity to come face to face with her abductors? Why did justice remain so elusive for so long for such an influential person?
These are the questions, which should have normally hogged headlines, warmed up the television chat rooms and invoked the attention of liberal lefts and pseudo secularists, who otherwise miss no opportunity to deliberate over (non)issues. But it didn’t happen. Rightly so because such a discourse does not fit well in the scheme of things revolving the ecosystem that is so strong where even kin get abandoned. Imagine a most powerful father and a sister looking towards the other side when it comes to upholding the pride and dignity of their own. They could have set an example by seeking expeditious justice to a hapless woman by urging the CBI to expedite investigations and setting up a Fast Track court but they chose differently. Instead, they eulogized the radicalised terrorists and their mentor rogue country for ‘maintaining the conducive atmosphere’ to facilitate their rehabilitation in the cradle of power. After taking oath as Chief Minister on March 1, 2015, Mufti Sayeed stated that the Hurriyat Conference, terrorist outfits and the people from across the border, an oblique reference to Pakistan, allowed a conducive atmosphere for assembly polls. This is how the eco-system has been working in the Valley. This has not been the case with Muftis only. The Abdullahs did not lag behind. Farooq Abdullah is on record having stated many times that hundreds of National Conference workers were killed by ‘terrorists’. This is a matter of fact. Terrorists did assassinate NC workers including sitting ministers in nineties onwards. In normal course, Farooq Abdullah should have nurtured venom against the enemies of peace in the Valley because his own people had fallen victim to their tentacles. But he too chose differently by saying on July 12, 2018 that “These boys (terrorists) have left (for the path of terrorism). Everyone loves life, nobody wants to die. They have made a promise to God that you decide the matters of life and death but we will sacrifice our life for the freedom of this nation…the new generation of Kashmiris was fearless and were ‘not scared of guns’…a new generation has taken birth which does not fear guns. It is striving to achieve freedom for this nation”.
The so-called Kashmir mainstream is a classic case of opportunism, which can sacrifice anything for power as also the cause being espoused by enemies of the country in the form of Jihad. This duplicity has cost the nation dearly. Rubaiya’s release was sought after setting free five dreaded terrorists in full public gaze on December 13, 2019, which is deemed as turning point in the Kashmir terror, as thousands of youth took them in a procession as a mark of triumph.
Identifying Yasin Malik in the Court, Rubaiya, according to Advocate Monica Kohli, said ‘Mini Bus Seay Jaab Utarna Tha Tou Isse (Malik) Nay Kaha, Chup Chap Utroo Nahin Tou Ghaseetkar Utaray Gay (When I was brought down from the mini bus, he was the one who said ‘get down otherwise you will be dragged out’). Ironically, Rubaiya’s sister, Mehbooba Mufti had said hours ahead of the conviction of Malik in the money laundering case, “”Jammu and Kashmir is a political issue. Many people here have been hanged, many were sentenced to life imprisonment. This did not help resolve the Kashmir issue but complicate it further. I feel that the consequences of the muscular policy of India won’t be good. The situation is deteriorating day by day. The issue is getting complicated instead of being resolved.”
This is how the eco-system in Kashmir works in favour of terrorists.