Mufti Mohammad Sayeed

Early life Sayeed was born on 12 January 1936, in Bijbehara, Anantnag district, then part of the princely state of Jammu and Kashmir, India, into a Kashmiri Sunni Muslim clerical family. He completed his basic studies in Srinagar and earned his law and postgraduate degree in Arabic from Aligarh Muslim University before entering politics.

His daughter, Mehbooba Mufti, 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 led by Ghulam Mohammed Sadiq. He was appointed as the district convenor of the party, 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. He joined the Rajiv Gandhi's government in 1986 as minister of Tourism.

He rejoined the Congress under P. V. Narasimha Rao, which he left in 1999 along with his daughter Mehbooba Mufti to form his own party, the Jammu and Kashmir Peoples Democratic Party.

Political career Chief Minister: First tenure (2002–2005) The prime minister, Dr. Manmohan Singh being seen off by the chief minister of Jammu and Kashmir, Mufti Mohammad Sayeed at the Leh Airport, in Jammu & Kashmir on 12 June 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 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. It was under his tenure which coincided with the peace process led by Indian prime ministers Atal Bihari Vajpayee and Manmohan Singh and Pakistani president Pervez Musharraf, with LOC opened for trade and bus service.

Chief Minister: Second tenure (2015–2016)

In the 2014 Jammu and Kashmir Legislative Assembly election, 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. The terrorists were emboldened by this release and this was a turning point in the history of Kashmir militancy which left a long lasting impact in Kashmir. In 1990 the exodus of Kashmiri Hindus happened from the valley of Kashmir. During his tenure as Home Minister of India the Exodus of Kashmiri Hindus 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. at about 7:30, according to provincial Education Minister and PDP Spokesman Nayeem Akhter. He was buried at his ancestral burial ground in Bijbehera with state honours. Former chief ministers Omar Abdullah and Ghulam Nabi Azad were present at his funeral.

According to party member and PDP chief spokesperson Mirza Mehboob Beg,

Sayeed was buried in Dara Shikoh Garden in Bijbehara.