Thirty-six years after one of the most sensational abductions in India’s contemporary history, an accused, long believed to be a key conspirator, has finally been arrested. The Central Bureau of Investigation’s custody of Shafat Ahmad Shangloo—an alleged JKLF functionary who reportedly handled the outfit’s finances—marks a significant development in the 1989 kidnapping of Rubaiya Sayeed, daughter of then Union Home Minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed.

Yet, the very timing of this arrest raises troubling questions about the pace and purpose of criminal justice in cases that shaped national security discourse. The CBI maintains it has evidence that Shangloo was in touch with JKLF chief Yasin Malik before a group of militants intercepted Rubaiya near a hospital in Srinagar.

Few incidents in Indi

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