Separatist Aasiya Andrabi sent to 10-day NIA custody

Kashmiri separatist Aasiya Andrabi was today handed over to the NIA by a Delhi court for 10 days' custodial interrogation in connection with a case of waging war against the country with support from Pakistan including terror entities.

Andrabi, who is chief of the banned outfit Dukhtaran-e-Milat, would be subjected to quizzing along with her two other women associates, who are accused of being involved in conspiracy and acts to "severely destabilize the sovereignty and integrity of India".

The trio were today brought here from Srinager amid tight security and produced before District Judge Poonam A Bamba who was told by the NIA that a probe has revealed that they were running a concerted campaign to elicit support from neighbouring country.

"The present investigation has so far revealed that the accused persons are found involved in the conspiracy and acts to severely destabilize the sovereignty and integrity of India.

"By their activities on cyber space they are running a concerted campaign to solicit support of Pakistani establishment which inter-alia includes arranging support from terrorist entities from Pakistan.

"Their involvement needs further investigation and for this purpose the interrogation of accused persons has become a necessity," the agency said.

Besides Andrabi, her associates Sofi Fehmeeda and Nahida Nasreen were also sent to 10 days' NIA remand by the court during the in-camera proceedings after the agency sought their custody for 15 days.

The lawyers, who were associated with the case, were allowed inside the court room and they briefed the waiting media about the court proceedings.

The case was registered against the three women in April this year.

They have been arrested for the offences under sections 147(rioting), 148(rioting armed with deadly weapon), 149(unlawful assembly), 341(wrongful restraint), 336(endangering life of others), 307(attempt to murder) and 120B (criminal conspiracy) of Ranbir Penal Code and under relevant provisions of Prevention of Damage of Public Property Act and Unlawful Activities Prevention Act.

Andrabi was in a prison in Srinagar after the Jammu and Kashmir High Court cancelled her bail last month.

The NIA, on directions of the Union Home Ministry, registered a case against them as well as the organisation, which is banned under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967, in April this year.

According to the FIR, the "central government has received information that Aasiya Andrabi and her associates namely Sofi Fehmeeda and Nahida Nasreen are actively running a terrorist organization named as 'Dukhtaran-E-Millat' (DEM) which is proscribed under the First Schedule to the UAPA".

"They are using various media platforms to spread insurrectionary imputations and hateful speeches that endanger the integrity, security and sovereignty of India. DEM through Aasiya Andrabi openly advocates secession of Jammu and Kashmir from the Union of India and has also called for Jihad and 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 hatred and contempt apart from exciting disaffection towards the Government of India".

The organisation, it added, is promoting enmity, hatred and ill-will between different communities on the grounds of religion and is doing acts prejudicial to maintenance of harmony.

Andrabi has solicited help from proscribed terrorist organizations and along with her associates, has entered into a criminal conspiracy to wage war against the Government of India, the FIR alleged.

She was arrested by the Jammu and Kashmir police in Anantnag in April this year for allegedly planning to organise a large-scale demonstration and stone-pelting in the area. She was not released despite being granted bail by the court and was arrested in a different case.

The high court had cancelled the bail of Andrabi and others in the case after police submitted its case diaries and an investigation was carried out.

It included the analysis of Andrabi's phone that purportedly showed that she was in constant touch with militant leaders across the border.