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New Delhi: The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Monday arrested Shafat Ahmad Shungloo, son of Saif-ud-Din, a resident of Hawal presently living at Ishber Nishat, in connection with the 1989 Rubaiya Sayeed kidnapping case, officials said here.

The arrest, made from Police Station Nishat, adds a fresh chapter to a case that has haunted Kashmir’s political, security and intelligence agencies for over three decades.

The abduction of Rubaiya Sayeed, daughter of then Union Home Minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed, on December 8, 1989, by terrorist’s group of the Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF).

Rubaiya, then a young doctor, was kidnapped while returning home from Lal Ded maternity hospital in Srinagar. Her captors demanded the release of five jailed JKLF terrorists. After five days of tense negotiations, the V.P. Singh-led government conceded, and Rubaiya was freed on December 13, 1989, in exchange for the terrorists.

The decision to yield to the terrorist’s demands is widely seen as a turning point that encouraged insurgent groups and gave legitimacy to hostage-taking as a tool of political bargaining. Security officials often describe it as the moment terrorism gained traction in Kashmir.

Among the accused in the case is Yasin Malik, then a JKLF commander. Malik was identified by Rubaiya herself when she appeared before the designated Terrorist and Disruptive Activities (TADA) court in Jammu in 2022, pointing him out as one of her abductors. Malik is currently serving a life sentence in Delhi’s Tihar Jail after being convicted in a separate terror-funding case.

CBI, which took over the case in the early 1990s, has in recent years revived proceedings, producing witnesses and examining multiple accused before the TADA court. Rubaiya’s testimony was important evidence in the trial, strengthening the prosecution’s case against Malik and others. The agency has argued that the abduction was not just a criminal act but a terror strike that altered the trajectory of Kashmir’s security scenario.

“Every arrest strengthens the chain of evidence. This case is about justice delayed for decades, but not denied,” a senior CBI officer said. The agency is expected to seek his custodial interrogation to establish his role in the conspiracy and execution of the abduction.

“The trial has been slow, with many accused either absconding or facing parallel charges. Yet the CBI has pressed ahead, determined to bring closure to a case that shows the cost of compromise in the face of terror demands,” said a political commentator here.

“For Jammu and Kashmir Police and other security agencies, the Rubaiya case remains a reminder of the challenges posed by terrorism’s evolution; from armed insurgency to political bargaining and now to “white-collar” terror networks,” he added.