Asiya Andrabi remanded in 10 days NIA custody
NEW DELHI: Asiya Andrabi, chief of the Kashmiri women’s separatist group Dukhtaran-e-Millat (DEM), and two of her associates were arrested by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) on Friday for allegedly advocating the secession of Jammu and Kashmir and the use of violence against India. A special NIA court in the capital subsequently remanded the three to 10 days in custody.
NEW DELHI: Asiya Andrabi, chief of the Kashmiri women’s separatist group Dukhtaran-e-Millat (DEM), and two of her associates were arrested by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) on Friday for allegedly advocating the secession of Jammu and Kashmir and the use of violence against India.
A special NIA court in the capital subsequently remanded the three to 10 days in custody.
Government officials said on condition of anonymity that the move was among recommendations made at a security review meeting held in New Delhi on March 3 that was chaired by National Security Advisor Ajit Doval and attended by home secretary Rajiv Gauba, Intelligence Bureau director Rajiv Jain, NIA director YC Modi, J&K police chief SP Vaid and additional director general (law and order) Munir Ahmed Khan.
Andrabi is the founder of DEM, a separatist organisation formed in 1987 and described by the home ministry as a proscribed outfit.
She is also the wife of Hizbul Mujahideen commanderturned-Hurriyat leader Qasim Faktoo, who has been in jail since 1993 .
“The allegations against the accused persons are that they have been using various media platforms to spread insurrectionary imputations and hateful speeches that advocate use of violence against India and secession of Jammu & Kashmir from the Union of India. Ms. Asiya Andrabi and her associates have written and spoken words and published visible representations that excite disaffection towards the Government of India and promote enmity, hatred and ill-will between different communities on the grounds of religion,” said NIA spokesperson Alok Mittal.
DEM was named in a earlier NIA case in which Lashkar-eTaiba chief Hafiz Saeed and Hizbul Mujahideen supremo Syed Salahuddin were also charged.
The agency has now accused Andrabi of soliciting “help from other banned terrorist organisations to wage war against the Government of India”.
“Further, she and her associates have been continuously indulging in acts that are prejudicial to maintenance of harmony and sovereignty and integrity of India,” Mittal said .
The first information report (FIR) on this matter was registered on April 26 against Andrabi and her associates Sofi Fehmeeda and Nahida Nasreen.
Documents with HT show that one of the recommendations that came out of the security review meeting held in March was to divide convicts and under-trial prisoners into three categories -under-trials in NIA cases, foreigners and hardcore militants.