Author: Bhavna Vij
Publication: The Indian Express
Date: October 15, 2001
Introduction: The Govt promised
to free 1militant, but released five
Ten years before Kandahar, the Indian
government set in motion the practice of releasing militants in exchange
of civilians in the Rubaiya Sayeed kidnapping case. That's well-known.
What isn't, though, is the fact that the Indian government released five
militants when asked to free just one. It could even have got away without
freeing any militant.
These facts are mentioned by General
K.V. Krishna Rao, state Governor at the time, in his recently published
memoirs, In the Service of the Nation. And they have been confirmed to
The Indian Express by V P Singh, Prime Minister at the time, whose justification
is that ''the safety of the girl was more important''.
So the newly elected Janata Dal
government involved a former judge of the J&K High Court, Moti Lal
Bhat, in the negotiations ''to speed up matters.'' Bhat agreed to the release
of all five JKLF militants - as originally demanded - instead of just one
to which the kidnappers agreed with the original negotiator (then chief
secretary Moosa Raza).
The significance of these events?
''Needless to say, the release of the five hardcore militants in this kidnapping
was the start of escalation of militancy, which gripped the state for many
years thereafter,'' writes the General.
``Rubaiya, a medical student, was
kidnapped by four militants on December 8, 1989, barely 500 meters from
her house while returning from the hospital where she worked. This was
just six days after the Janata Dal government had come to power at the
Centre under Prime Minister V.P. Singh.
The JKLF owned responsibility for
the kidnap and demanded the release of five of their hardcore members -
Abdul Hamid Sheikh, Sher Khan, Mohammad Altaf, Noor Mohd Kalwal and Abdul
Ahmad Waza. The exchange took place on December 13.
According to Krishna Rao, then Chief
Minister Farooq Abdullah had opposed the release of the militants, saying
the government should continue negotiations for some more time. ''This
was a game of nerves and if we had persisted with the first negotiator...the
girl would have been released without exchange of militants'', the book
says.
When contacted, Abdullah confirmed
the sequence of events as mentioned in the book.
Speaking to The Indian Express,
Krishna Rao says the appointment of Justice Bhat as the Centre's negotiator
spoilt everything. ''Bhat was sympathetic to the other side'', the former
Governor says; even as a judge in the J&K High Court, his judgements
were seen as pro-militant.
Moosa Raza, now heading the Islamic
Cultural Centre in New Delhi, says a deal to release just one militant,
that too conditional, was almost finalised.
''The kidnappers asked me to go
on television and make an appeal for the release of Rubaiya Sayeed. It
was part ofthe deal as a face-saving device for them. I did that with the
approval of then Cabinet Secretary T.N. Seshan. The deal was very much
in our favour. We were not even to release the militant but send him to
London for medical treatment or hand him over to the International Committee
for the Red Cross (ICRC),'' Raza told The Indian Express.
The negotiations were protracted
because they were being carried out not on the phone but through intermediaries.
''Justice Bhat had been transferred to Allahabad High Court but was then
in Srinagar, probably for a holiday. He was reportedly unhappy with the
transfer and was looking for a way back to J&K. Then he was appointed
negotiator by the Centre and, sidetracking me and the state, opened a separate
line with the militants. He was using a go-between, a certain Dr Guru''
said Raza.
The chief secretary was then told
by the Centre to liaise with Bhat and stop all negotiations. ''My position
became untenable. The militants told me that I had been cheating them because
the central government was willing to release all five. In fact, I received
an ultimatum from Seshan on behalf of Prime Minister VP Singh. Speaking
from the PM's chamber, Seshan dictated an order to me that, consistent
with the safety of the hostage, the state government will be held responsible
and that I must listen to Justice Bhat and do as he says. Later, from his
own office, Seshan told me to fall at Bhat's feet if need be,'' said Raza.
In effect, the matter had been taken
over by the Centre. Many at the called the release a sign of the Prime
Minister's weakness. However, V.P. Singh is unrepentant. Talking to The
Indian Express on Sunday, he admitted that Rubaiya's release could have
been secured without even a single terrorist being set free if they had
hung on for some more time but, he added, ''safety of the girl was of prime
importance.''
No ''hardcore militants'' were released,
Singh avers. ''The initial demand of kidnappers was the release of top
JKLF leaders. We said a solid no. Then they scaled down their demand and
asked for five insignificant militants. It was a face-saving ploy by them
after their main purpose was frustrated. So we thought it was okay to release
these five unimportant militants. It was not a sign of weakness of the
government,'' Singh says.
But why did government agree to
release all five militants when they themselves had scaled down their demand
to one, that of Abdul Hamid Sheikh? Singh has no answer.
He denies, though, that this incident
was a turning point for militancy in the state. ''Even before this incident,
the Congress government in the state had been regularly releasing militants
from prisons for some reason or the other,'' he said.
Singh also tried to vindicate himself
by taking potshots at the BJP government for releasing three hardcore terrorists
in exchange of hijacked passengers of IC-814 at Kandahar 10 years after.
''We released Indians, they released Pakistanis. Nobody even heard of the
militants we released after that but the terrorists hand delivered by Jaswant
Singh are killing innocent people in the state. The release of terrorists
at Kandahar was the turning point and not what we did,'' he said.
