Separatist Andrabi held for ‘engineering’ student protests

Ishfaq Tantry

Tribune News Service

srinagar, April 22

The hardline woman separatist leader, Asiya Andrabi, has been remanded in eight-day police custody and lodged at Srinagar Central Jail for “engineering student protests” against the rape-murder of a minor Kathua girl.

As per police reports, Andrabi along with her four women associates was arrested on Friday evening from the Aaang area of Anchidora in Anantnag district of south Kashmir.

“She was arrested for engineering student protests,” said Senior Superintendent of Police, Anantnag, Altaf Khan. He said Andrabi was sent to eight-day police remand.

Four Hurriyat Conference activists, including tehsil president of the Tehreek-e-Hurriyat Ashiq Narchoor, were also arrested by the police in raids.

The moderate faction of the Hurriyat Conference has condemned the arrests and the detention of the “resistance leaders” under the Public Safety Act.

“On the one side, resistance leaders are being either detained in their houses or in police stations and on the other, political activists are being subjected to crackdown and atrocities. The arrests and lodging of Asiya Andrabi in jail is condemnable and is part of the political vendetta by the government,” the Hurriyat said in a statement, adding that by resorting to such tactics, the “government cannot break the resolve of the resistance” leadership.

The Kashmir High Court Bar Association has termed the grounds on which Andrabi was arrested as flimsy, terming the “peaceful protests and demonstrations a fundamental right”.

“Syeda Asiya Andrabi, Fahmeeda Sofi and Nahida Nasreen, who were on their way to Anantnag, were arrested by the police on a flimsy charge of orchestrating the student protests in Anantnag, ignoring the fact that holding demonstrations and protests is a legal and fundamental right of every individual or group of individuals,” the Bar said, adding that “in recent past, such protests have not only been held in Kashmir but also all over the world against the brutal rape and murder of an eight-year-old girl in Kathua”.

“No one other than Kashmiris have been arrested and put behind bars for a peaceful activity, which is highly shameful and deserves a strong notice by the peace-loving people of the world,” the Bar said.