NIA makes first attachment of separatist property in Kashmir; Asiya Andrabi's house seized

The National Investigation Agency on Wednesday attached hardline Kashmiri separatist leader Asiya Andrabi's house on the outskirts of Srinagar city under the stringent UAPA anti-terror law, officials said here.

The attachment order, the first by NIA against any separatist from Kashmir Valley, was pasted outside the residence of Andrabi, the chief of the banned Dukhtaran-E-Millat group, at 90 Feet Road in Soura area.

An NIA spokesman said in a statement the agency attached the property under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act.

The approval for attachment was granted by the director general of Jammu and Kashmir Police as required under the law and consequent to attachment, the property cannot be sold, transferred or otherwise dealt with in any manner without the permission of the officer making the order, the spokesman said.

He said a copy of the order has been forwarded to the Srinagar deputy commissioner to enter the attachment in the revenue records.

The attachment has been effected under Section 25 (i) of UAPA, which states that an investigating officer can attach a property if the officer has reasons to believe that it has been brought from proceeds of terrorism.

The NIA had filed a charge sheet in November last year against Andrabi and two of her associates for allegedly "waging war" against India using Internet platforms.

Andrabi, Sofi Fehmeeda and Naheeda Nasreen were using Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and TV channels including some in Pakistan to spread "insurrectionary imputations and hateful messages and speeches against India", the charge sheet had said.

Dukhtaran-E-Millat, a banned terrorist organisation, through Andrabi and others, openly advocates secession of Jammu and Kashmir from the Union of India and its merger with Pakistan through violent means.

It is engaged in anti-India activities and has been inciting the Kashmiri people for an armed rebellion against the Government of India with aid and assistance of terrorist organisations based in Pakistan.

Andrabi and her two associates were arrested by Jammu and Kashmir police in April last year and the case was later transferred to NIA in July.

"She is spreading seditious and insurrectionary imputations against the Government of India. She is promoting ill-will and enmity between different communities in India on religious grounds. Investigation has also established that she has close contacts with designated global terrorist Hafeez Mohammad Saeed who is the head of Jamaat-ud-Dawah and Lashkar-e-Taiba, internationally designated terrorist organizations that are based in Pakistan," the NIA has said.

The central agency said Fehmeeda and Nasreen have been instrumental in using social media and other platforms to wage war against the Indian government.

They also collected funds to carry out terrorist activities of Dukhtaran-E-Millat.