NEW DELHI – Asiya Andrabi, chief of the Kashmiri women’s separatist groupDukhtaran-e-Milat (Daughters of Faith), and two of her associates were onFriday remanded to 10-day National Investigation Agency (NIA) custody. Shewas presented before a special NIA court in Delhi in connection with asedition case filed against them by the agency.
A case was registered against them in April this year for allegedly wagingwar against the country and delivering hate speeches in Occupied Jammu andKashmir. The court allowed the NIA to quiz the three accused till July 16.
The NIA, on directions of the Union Home Ministry, had registered a caseagainst them as well as the organisation, which is banned under theUnlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967, in April this year.
According to the FIR, the “central government has received information thatone Aasiya Andrabi and her associates namely Sofi Fehmeeda and NahidaNasreen are actively running a terrorist organization named as’Dukhtaran-E-Millat’ (DEM) which is prescribed under the First Schedule tothe UAPA”.
“They are using various media platforms to spread insurrectionaryimputations and hateful speeches that endanger the integrity, security andsovereignty of India. DEM through Aasiya Andrabi openly advocates secessionof Jammu and Kashmir from the Union of India and has also called for Jihadand use of violence against India,” the FIR alleged.
The agency also said in the FIR that Andrabi and her associates had spoken,written and also published “visible representations that bring into hatredand contempt apart from exciting disaffection towards the Government ofIndia”.
The organisation, it added, is promoting enmity, hatred and ill-willbetween different communities on the grounds of religion and is doing actsprejudicial to maintenance of harmony.