Rubaiya Sayeed abduction case: Yasin Malik seeks physical appearance in trial, threatens indefinite hunger strike

As the judge started recording the statement of a prosecution witness, Malik complained that nothing was audible to him. “You are recording statement of prosecution witnesses and leave me aside…you ask the jail staff whether anything is audible to them,” he said.

Informing the court that he has already written to the government on July 9 for physical appearance and also to cross examine the prosecution witnesses in person, he said that he will go on indefinite hunger strike on July 22 in case his request is not accepted. Yasin Malik is, at present, undergoing life sentence in a terror funding case in Delhi’s Tihar Jail. In Jammu’s TADA court, he is facing trial in cases related to the abduction of Rubaiya Sayeed and killing of four IAF personnel in Srinagar in December 1989 and January 1990, respectively.

In March 2020, the TADA court had framed charges against Malik and six others in the killing of four IAF personnel, saying that there were sufficient grounds to draw the presumption that the accused have committed the offence. All the seven are charged with criminal conspiracy, murder, murder attempt and under provisions of TADA and the Arms Act.

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Malik and nine others were charged by the court in January 2021 in a case relating to the abduction of Rubaiya Sayeed. They are among two dozen accused named by CBI in its charge sheet filed before the TADA court. Rubaiya was kidnapped by members of JKLF members from Srinagar to ensure the release of their associates lodged in different jails.