Mufti Mohammad Sayeed (12 January 19367 January 2016; Urdu: مفتی محمد سید) was an Indian politician who served as the chief minister of Jammu and Kashmir twice from November 2002 to November 2005 and from March 2015 until his death on January 7, 2016. He held various positions, including

minister of Tourism The Minister of Tourism is the head of the governmental department that specializes in tourism, recreation and/or culture. The position exists in many countries under several names: *Ministry of Tourism and Environment (Albania) *Ministry of Touri ...

in Rajiv Gandhi's cabinet and

minister of Home Affairs An interior minister (sometimes called a minister of internal affairs or minister of home affairs) is a cabinet official position that is responsible for internal affairs, such as public security, civil registration and identification, emergency ...

in V. P. Singh's cabinet. Sayeed began his political career in the wing of the National Conference led by G. M. Sadiq, which later merged with the

Indian National Congress The Indian National Congress (INC), colloquially the Congress Party, or simply the Congress, is a political parties in India, political party in India with deep roots in most regions of India. Founded on 28 December 1885, it was the first mo ...

. In 1987, he transitioned to the

Janata Dal Janata Dal () was an List of political parties in India, Indian political party which was formed through the merger of Lok Dal, Indian National Congress (Jagjivan), and the Jan Morcha on 11 October 1988—the birth anniversary of Jayaprakash Na ...

and subsequently founded the People's Democratic Party (PDP), a regional political party that remains influential in Jammu and Kashmir, currently led by his daughter,

Mehbooba Mufti Mehbooba Bur Mufti Sayed (Urdu: محبوبہ مفتی سید; born 22 May 1959) in Bijbihara Anantnag district is an Indian politician and leader of the Jammu and Kashmir People's Democratic Party (PDP), who served as the 9th and last chie ...

Early life

Sayeed was born on 12 January 1936, in Bijbehara,

Anantnag district Anantnag district is an administrative district of Indian-administered Jammu and Kashmir (union territory), Jammu and Kashmir in the disputed Kashmir region. The application of the term "administered" to the various regions of Kashmir and a m ...

, then part of the princely state of Jammu and Kashmir, British India, into a Kashmiri Shia Muslim clerical family. He completed his basic studies in

Srinagar Srinagar (; ) is a city in Indian-administered Jammu and Kashmir in the disputed Kashmir region.The application of the term "administered" to the various regions of Kashmir and a mention of the Kashmir dispute is supported by the tertiary ...

and earned his law and postgraduate degree in

Arabic Arabic (, , or , ) is a Central Semitic languages, Central Semitic language of the Afroasiatic languages, Afroasiatic language family spoken primarily in the Arab world. The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) assigns lang ...

from

Aligarh Muslim University Aligarh Muslim University is a Collegiate university, collegiate, Central university (India), central, and Research university, research university located in Aligarh, Uttar Pradesh, India, which was originally established by Sir Syed Ahmad Kh ...

before entering politics. His daughter,

, is a politician and former chief minister of Jammu and Kashmir.

Political party affiliations

Sayeed started his political career in the 1950s in the Democratic National Conference, a splinter group of the

Jammu & Kashmir National Conference The Jammu and Kashmir National Conference (JKNC) is a regional political party in Indian-administered Jammu and Kashmir (union territory), Jammu and Kashmir union territory and Ladakh. Founded as the All Jammu and Kashmir Muslim Conference by ...

led by Ghulam Mohammed Sadiq. He was appointed as the district convenor of the party,Nistula Hebbar
J&K Chief Minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed dead
The Hindu, 7 January 2016. which merged back into the National Conference in late 1960. In 1962, he was elected to the Legislative Assembly from Bijbehara. After G. M. Sadiq became the chief minister of the state in 1964, Sayeed was appointed as a deputy minister in his government. In January 1965, the National Conference merged into the

. Thus Sayeed became a member of Congress. In 1972, Sayeed became a cabinet minister and, the president of the state Congress unit. He joined the

Rajiv Gandhi Rajiv Gandhi (20 August 1944 – 21 May 1991) was an Indian statesman and pilot who served as the prime minister of India from 1984 to 1989. He took office after the Assassination of Indira Gandhi, assassination of his mother, then–prime ...

government A government is the system or group of people governing an organized community, generally a State (polity), state. In the case of its broad associative definition, government normally consists of legislature, executive (government), execu ...

in 1986 as

. In 1987, he quit the Congress party to join V. P. Singh's

Jan Morcha The Jan Morcha ( translation: ''People's Front'') was an Indian political party founded by V. P. Singh after he left the Indian National Congress party in 1987 upon being dismissed as Defence Minister by Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi. Together ...

, which led to him becoming the first Muslim

minister for Home Affairs An interior minister (sometimes called a minister of internal affairs or minister of home affairs) is a cabinet official position that is responsible for internal affairs, such as public security, civil registration and identification, emergency ...

in the Union Cabinet of India for one year, from 1989 to 1990. He rejoined the Congress under

P. V. Narasimha Rao Pamulaparthi Venkata Narasimha Rao (28 June 1921 – 23 December 2004) was an Indian independence activist, lawyer, and statesman from the Indian National Congress who served as the prime minister of India from 1991 to 1996. He was the first p ...

, which he left in 1999 along with his daughter

to form his own party, the

Jammu and Kashmir Peoples Democratic Party The Jammu and Kashmir Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) is a state political party in Jammu and Kashmir, India. The PDP was headed and founded by Mufti Mohammed Sayeed. His daughter, Mehbooba Mufti, succeeded him as party leader and as chief ...

Political career

Chief Minister: First tenure (2002–2005)

Sayeed participated in the 2002 assembly election and won 18 assembly seats for his Peoples Democratic Party. He went on to form a

coalition government A coalition government, or coalition cabinet, is a government by political parties that enter into a power-sharing arrangement of the executive. Coalition governments usually occur when no single party has achieved an absolute majority after an ...

with the Indian National Congress, and was sworn in as the chief minister of Jammu and Kashmir for a term of three years. In 2003, he merged the autonomous Special Operations Group with the

Jammu and Kashmir Police The Jammu and Kashmir Police is the police force of Indian union territory of Jammu and Kashmir. JKP was established in 1873 and has primary responsibilities in law enforcement and investigation within Jammu and Kashmir. History The first ...

. It was under his tenure which coincided with the

peace process A peace process is the set of political sociology, sociopolitical negotiations, agreements and actions that aim to solve a specific armed conflict. Definitions Prior to an armed conflict occurring, peace processes can include the prevention of ...

led by Indian prime ministers

Atal Bihari Vajpayee Atal Bihari Vajpayee (25 December 1924 – 16 August 2018) was an Indian poet, writer and statesman who served as the prime minister of India, first for a term of 13 days in 1996, then for a period of 13 months from 1998 ...

and

Manmohan Singh Manmohan Singh (26 September 1932 – 26 December 2024) was an Indian economist, bureaucrat, academician, and statesman, who served as the prime minister of India from 2004 to 2014. He was the fourth longest-serving prime minister after Jaw ...

and Pakistani president

Pervez Musharraf Pervez Musharraf (11 August 1943 – 5 February 2023) was a Pakistani general and politician who served as the tenth president of Pakistan from 2001 to 2008. Prior to his career in politics, he was a four-star general and appointed as ...

, with

LOC LOC, L.O.C., Loc, LoC, or locs may refer to: Places * Lóc, a village in Sângeorgiu de Pădure, Mureș County, Romania * Lócs, a village in Vas county, Hungary * Line of Contact, meeting place of Western and Eastern Allied forces at the end ...

opened for trade and bus service.

Chief Minister: Second tenure (2015–2016)

In the

2014 Jammu and Kashmir Legislative Assembly election The 2014 Jammu and Kashmir Legislative Assembly election was held in the Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir in five phases from 25 November – 20 December 2014. Voters elected 87 members to the Jammu and Kashmir Legislative Assembly, which en ...

, the PDP emerged as the single largest party, though it fell short of a majority. Following a coalition agreement between the BJP and the PDP, Sayeed started his second tenure as the chief minister of Jammu and Kashmir in 2015.

Union Minister for Home Affairs

In 1989, within few days of taking office as the Union Minister for Home Affairs, his third daughter, Rubaiya, was kidnapped in 1989. Under pressure, she was released from captivity. During his tenure as Home Minister of India the

Exodus of Kashmiri Hindus The Exodus of Kashmiri Hindus, or Pandits, is their early-1990 * * * * * * * * * migration, or flight, from the Muslim-majority Kashmir valley in Indian-administered Kashmir following rising violence in an insurgency. Of a total Pandit popula ...

took place.

Attacks on his family and himself

Besides attacks on family members Sayeed also survived attacks on his life by Kashmiri separatists. His daughter Rubaiya Sayeed was also kidnapped on 9 December 1989.

Death

On 24 December 2015, Sayeed was admitted to the

AIIMS The All India Institutes of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) is a group of autonomous government public medical universities of higher education under the jurisdiction of Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Government of India. These institutes ha ...

hospital in New Delhi. He suffered from neck pain and fever. His condition gradually deteriorated, and he was put on ventilator support. He died on 7 January 2016 due to multi-organ failure at about 7:30, according to provincial Education Minister and PDP Spokesman Nayeem Akhter. He was just five days short of his 80th birthday when he died. Reactions to this death came from prime minister

Narendra Modi Narendra Damodardas Modi (born 17 September 1950) is an Indian politician who has served as the Prime Minister of India, prime minister of India since 2014. Modi was the chief minister of Gujarat from 2001 to 2014 and is the Member of Par ...

, national Home Minister

Rajnath Singh Rajnath Singh (; born 10 July 1951) is an Indian politician and lecturer who is serving the Defence Minister of India since 20 May 2019. He was also the Deputy Leader of the House, Lok Sabha since 2014. He also served the Home Minister in th ...

at Delhi airport and the

14th Dalai Lama The 14th Dalai Lama (born 6 July 1935; full spiritual name: Jetsun Jamphel Ngawang Lobsang Yeshe Tenzin Gyatso, shortened as Tenzin Gyatso; ) is the incumbent Dalai Lama, the highest spiritual leader and head of Tibetan Buddhism. He served a ...

. He was buried at his ancestral burial ground in Bijbehera with state honours. Former chief ministers Omar Abdullah and

Ghulam Nabi Azad Ghulam Nabi Azad (born 7 March 1949) is an Indian politician who served as Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha between 2014 and 2021. He also served as the Chief Minister of erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir from 2005 to 2008. On 26 Septemb ...

were present at his funeral. Condolences also came from former president

Pranab Mukherjee Pranab Kumar Mukherjee ( ; born, 11 December 1935 – 31 August 2020) was an Indian statesman who served as the president of India from 2012 until 2017. He was the first person from West Bengal to hold the post of President of India. In a pol ...

, former deputy prime minister L. K. Advani, Ram Madhav, Delhi chief minister

Arvind Kejriwal Arvind Kejriwal (; born 16 August 1968) is an Indian politician, activist and former bureaucrat, who served as the 7th Chief Minister of Delhi. He was the chief minister from 2013 to 2014 and from 2015 to 2024. He is also the national conve ...

, BJP vice president Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi, former national Oil minister

Milind Deora Milind Murli Deora (born 4 December 1976) is an Indian politician who currently serves as a member of parliament in the Rajya Sabha from Maharashtra. He previously held key positions within the Government of India, notably as the minister of st ...

, PDP member Rafi Mir and politicians Kalraj Mishra, Jitendra Singh and Ahmed Patel. According to party member and PDP chief spokesperson Mirza Mehboob Beg, the PDP supported his daughter, Mehbooba Mufti, as the next chief minister, while coalition ally BJP expressed "no objection" to her succeeding her father. Sayeed was buried in Dara Shikoh Garden Bijbehara.

References

Bibliography

External links

Official website

Biography on J&K PDP website

The Collaborator: How Mufti Mohammad Sayeed became Delhi’s man in Kashmir
, - {{DEFAULTSORT:Sayeed, Mohammad 1936 births 2016 deaths Kashmiri politicians Indian Shia Muslims Chief ministers of Jammu and Kashmir People from Bijbehara Jammu and Kashmir Peoples Democratic Party politicians V. P. Singh administration Rajya Sabha members from Jammu and Kashmir Rajya Sabha members from Uttar Pradesh Lok Sabha members from Jammu and Kashmir Ministers of internal affairs of India Jammu and Kashmir MLAs 2014–2018 Aligarh Muslim University alumni Faculty of Law, Aligarh Muslim University alumni Chief ministers from Peoples Democratic Party Indian National Congress politicians from Jammu and Kashmir Janata Dal politicians India MPs 1998–1999 India MPs 1989–1991 Lok Sabha members from Uttar Pradesh People from Muzaffarnagar 20th-century Indian Muslims 21st-century Indian Muslims Kashmiri Muslims