The Kidnapping of Nahida Imtiaz - The incident that caused a spike in terrorist kidnappings in Kashmir
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| Nahida Imtiaz After She Returned Home in 1991 (courtesy: India Today) |
Those
following the issue of terrorism in the Kashmir valley may recall the infamous
1989 kidnapping of Rubaiyya Sayeed, the daughter of then Home Minister of India
and later Chief Minister of Jammu and Kashmir Mufti Mohammad Sayeed. The
harrowing episode had resulted in the release of hardcore militants of the
Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF). However, little is discussed about
another kidnapping that had happened, just two years later. The target this
time was another prominent Kashmiri politician – Saifuddin Soz.
THE
TURBULENT SCENARIO
On 27
February 1991, the Jammu and Kashmir Students' Liberation Front (JKSLF)
kidnapped Nahida Imtiaz, the daughter of Saifuddin Soz. The JKSLF demanded the
release of five terrorists put in jail by the security forces. At the time,
Saifuddin Soz was a prominent leader of the Jammu and Kashmir National
Conference led at the time by Farooq Abdullah. The JKNC had earlier abdicated
power in 1990, letting the terror organizations run riot in the state.
The
abduction, As reported by some journalists at the time, was seen as a desperate
attempt by the Jammu & Kashmir Students' Liberation Front (JKSLF) to seize
the leadership of the secessionist movement. A serious struggle was going on
among the various terrorist organizations at the time to gain paramountcy. The pro-Pakistan
Jamait-i-Islami expressed its willingness to hold talks with the Government as
it saw itself losing out the popularity race in the Kashmir valley. This
horrified other secessionist groups, particularly the JKSLF, Hizbul Mujahideen and
the Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF).
THE
RANSOM IS TERRORISM
Abduction as
a tactic to secure release of terrorists was gaining ground rapidly. The
kidnappings of Professor Musheer-ul-Haq, the then vice-chancellor of Kashmir
University, his personal assistant Abdul Gani and General Manager Hindustan
Machine Tools, a manufacturing company, H L Kehra in April 1990 grabbed
national headlines, with all of them later being slaughtered by their
kidnappers.
The security
forces, initially at a loss for a counter, fought back with a strategy. The state
police adopted a tit for tat strategy, and saw success too. JKSLF was forced to
free the Srinagar deputy commissioner's son Ghulam Abbas, after the police got
hold of Javed Shalla, the group's deputy chief and forced the JKSLF to exchange
the two. In this case, however, things went south.
THINGS
WENT DOWNHILL
Banking on
their previous success with Ghulam Abbas, the security forces arrested the
brother of kidnapper Mukhtar alias Omar Kachroo. However, within a matter of
hours, they had to release his brother. Events of the time remain disputed, but
what is definitely known is that there was a request from Soz's family to
release the brother of Omar Kachroo saying Nahida would be killed if the same
was not done.
Saifuddin
Soz, as per some news reports from the time, made a big issue out of the same
with the Prime Minister’s office. BJP leader Dr. Subramanian Swamy, who was a
senior minister in the then Prime Minister Chandrashekhar’s government,
remembered how Saifuddin Soz bawled and threw a tantrum in front of him and the
Prime Minister, begging them to save his daughter at any cost.
CONDEMNATION
OF THE ACT BY OTHER GROUPS
The
kidnapping of Nahida Imtiaz was condemned roundly by other militant groups,
prodded on by handlers in Pakistan. A R&AW intercept at the time had shown
that during his Beijing visit at the time, then Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz
Sharif spoke to his information minister Maulana Kausar Niazi, and had asked
him to tell the concerned people that kidnapping was un-Islamic and Nahida
should be released.
Taking a
lead from their handlers, groups like the Hizb-ul-Mujahideen and the JKLF
condemned the actions of JKSLF and demanded that Nahida be released
unconditionally as the abduction of a woman was against their religious tenets.
Partly driven by the sense of public anger, even the likes of JKLF chief Amanullah
Khan made an appeal for Nahida's release.
THE
EVENTUAL RELEASE AND AFTERMATH
While the
police at the time had refused to budge from their position, what really helped
to secure the release of Nahida remains somewhat unclear. Pressure from
repeated raids on JKSLF hideouts by security forces combined with public
pressure did make the body climb down from their earlier demand of five
militants. Dr. Swamy has always maintained that “her release was obtained
within a week and without any quid pro quo”. However, there were news reports
that secessionist Mushtaq Ahmed was released in exchange. Jagmohan, who was
governor prior to this incident before being replaced by Girish Saxena, has
maintained that five terrorists were indeed released in exchange of Nahida’s
release. In any case, Nahida Imtiaz, daughter of Saifuddin Soz, returned home
within one week.
This
incident deeply emboldened the terrorists, who scaled up the terror activities
in Kashmir. Within a month’s time, Indian Oil Corporation Executive Director K.
Dorraiswamy was abducted by activists of Ikhwan-Ul Muslimeen in Srinagar on
July 29, 1991. His release on August 21 was possible when the government set
free six militants. This incident later proved to be the inspiration for Mani
Ratnam’s 1992 classic Tamil film Roja. Between 1990 and 1995, militant
kidnappings saw a spike, with a peak of 368 kidnappings in 1995 that included
the kidnap of foreign tourists, most of whose whereabouts are remain unknown to
this day.
MUCH HAS
CHANGED IN THE PRESENT REGIME
One must
feel grateful today that the Modi government has literally broken the back of
terrorism in the state of Jammu and Kashmir. While strong action was on from
the start of Mr. Modi’s term in 2014, the decisive turn came in 2017, when the
BJP withdrew support to Mehbooba Mufti. Since that time, there has been
decisive action, which has sharply reduced the overall number of deaths due to
terrorist activities. Further, India has taken the fight into enemy territory
with military operations like surgical strikes and air raids, both of which
have caused considerable damage to the capabilities of terrorists and their
handlers alongside several other measures.
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