Asiya Andrabi

Asiya Andrabi
Born 1962[1]
Occupation Chairman of Dukhtaran-e-Millat
Nationality Indian
Ethnicity Kashmiri
Alma mater Kashmir University
Spouse Ashiq Hussain Faktoo
Children Muhammad bin Qasim (23 years old)
Ahmed bin Qasim (16 years old)

Asiya Andrabi, a pro-Pakistan separatist, is the founding leader of Dukhtaran-e-Millat (Daughters of the nation).[2] This Islamic group is part of the separatist All Parties Hurriyat Conference in the Kashmir valley. The main aim of the organisation is to work for separation of Kashmir from India. Asiya Andrabi remains one of the most important women separatists in the valley. The stereotypical burka and anti-state ideology has tagged her as an Islamic extremist and separatist. Her supporters call her the iron lady.[3]

Asiya Andrabi was married to Ashiq Hussain Faktoo (a founding member of the Hizbul Mujahideen, the biggest militant organization in Kashmir) in 1990. Her husband is in jail since 1992. By then, Asiya was already a household name as the head of Kashmir's biggest network of women jihadis (as she describes her lieutenants of Dukhtaran-e-Millat),[4][5] In September 2013, Asiya Andrabi’s 3 nephews were arrested in Pakistan for terror links.[6][7][8] She hoisted the Pakistan flag and sang the Pakistani national anthem in Kashmir on March 25, 2015.[9] Later on, she was booked for unfurling the Pakistan flag on its national day in Srinagar.[10]

Asiya Andrabi plays a crucial role in Jihadi politics of Kashmir valley. She is best known for supporting Masarat Alam in the 2010 stone-pelting rallies across Kashmir by using her village network of Dukhtaran-e-Millat operatives for rally support.[4]

On September 12, 2015, Hurriyat leader Syeda Asiya Andrabi slaughtered a cow and released a video in a bid to defy the ban on sale of beef in Jammu and Kashmir.[11]

Arrest

She was arrested on August 28, 2010 by Jammu and Kashmir Police for waging war against India and for inciting violence.[12] She was again arrested on September 17, 2015[13] in connection with a couple of cases registered against her. The cases included waving Pakistani flags and addressing, via phone, a conference in Pakistan recently. Andrabi, who was not keeping well, as per DeM sources, was sent to Women's Police Station Rambagh, Srinagar.[14] The court granted her bail,[15] but she was arrested again, and Kashmiris protested against her rearrest.[16][17]

Early life

Asiya did her BSc in Biochemistry. She did her post graduation in Arabic from Kashmir University. Later on, she took up the cause of Jihad.[4][18] She married Ashiq Hussain Faktoo in 1990.[4]

Personal life

As of 2015, Asiya's husband Dr. Faktoo has been in jail for 23 years. She spent just 2 years with her husband.[4]

Her younger son, 15-year-old Ahmed bin Qasim, is in class IX in Srinagar while her older son, 22-year-old Muhammad bin Qasim, is living with Andrabi's elder sister in Malaysia. He is the captain of his university cricket team.[4] Most of Asiya’s relatives have shifted to Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, England and Malaysia.[19] One of her nephews, Zulqarnain is a captain in the Pakistan Army and a second nephew Irtiyaz-un-Nabi is an aeronautical engineer and lecturer in the International Islamic University, Islamabad.[19]

Andrabi founded her religious beliefs on the teachings of the neo-fundamentalist Jamiat Ahl-e-Hadith,[20] which adheres to the pristine teachings of Islam as to accept everything which is good according to religious text and reject what has not been enjoined by the Islamic Shariah.[21]

Role in Kashmir politics

In pro-Pakistan Islamist activism and separatism, Asiya is senior to Syed Ali Shah Geelani who used to be a member of the Jammu and Kashmir Legislative Assembly in the 1980s when she founded Dukhtaran-e-Millat.[19] In 1982, Asiya was associated with a Madrassa ‘Talimul Quran’ for women which was later turned into Dukhtaran-e-Millat. She started inviting women to read, understand and practice their faith. She was accused of mobilizing women against India.[22]

On inspiration behind formation of "Dukhtaran-e-Millat" she said, “I was an ambitious girl. I was shocked by this objection on my wish to study outside. But in that disappointed state Mayil Khairabadi’s book 'Khawateen ki Baatein' came to my rescue." The cover story of the book was of Maryam Jameela, a Christian woman who converts to Islam after studying the religion thoroughly. For Asiya, Jameela’s story was “an eye opener” to practice Islam. Then Asiya turned to be fundamentalist Muslim.[18]

Asiya shot into prominence in the late 1980s when she launched the DeM essentially against social vices.[23] However, she jumped into the separatist campaign, which began with the armed insurgency in 1990.[23] In 1993 she was arrested for her anti-national activities, was later released in 1994, and she went underground until 2004.[18] Asiya faced monthly arrests in 2007 to 2009. During the unrest of 2010, she was held for two consecutive years.[18] Along with Masarat Alam (leader of the pro-Pakistan Muslim League), Asiya is believed to be one of the masterminds of the protests of 2010 (in which more than 100 protesters were shot dead by Jammu and Kashmir Police[24]), and they spearheaded the “Quit Jammu and Kashmir” campaign. Both the DeM and the Muslim League are constituents of the Hurriyat Conference faction led by Syed Ali Shah Geelani.[23]

She is referred by Muslims in Kashmir as a freedom fighter and was lauded by Pakistan Prime Minister.

Criticism

Dr. Darakshan Andrabi who is the president of Socialistic Democratic Party of Jammu and Kashmir (also a Kashmiri politician who thinks that the future of Kashmiri people lies with India[27]) said in 2010, "I was the first one to talk about the duality that Asiya was adopting. We were happy that she wanted her son to secure an Indian passport and study IT in Malaysia but this should apply for all Kashmiri youth. Asiya should ask all Kashmiris to secure an Indian passport and educate themselves. Instead she exhorts the youth to shun everything and anything that is India."[28]

See also

References

  1. ↑ "Inside Kashmir's New Islamist movement". 19 August 2010. Retrieved 25 August 2016 – via The Hindu.
  2. ↑ Rasool, Khurram (2013-01-15). "The woman we don't know". Kashmirreader.com. Retrieved 2013-07-24.
  3. ↑ "Life and times of Asiya Andrabi - PKKH.tv". 11 March 2014. Retrieved 25 August 2016.
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 6 "For the first family of militancy, a troubled road - Times of India". Retrieved 25 August 2016.
  5. ↑ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2015-04-02. Retrieved 2015-03-24.
  6. ↑ "Asiya Andrabi meets Pak PM's adviser, seeks release of nephews - The Times of India". Retrieved 25 August 2016.
  7. ↑ "Asiya Andrabi's 3 nephews arrested in Pakistan for "terror links"". 11 September 2013. Retrieved 25 August 2016 – via The Hindu.
  8. ↑ "Asiya Andrabi held in Srinagar - The Times of India". Retrieved 25 August 2016.
  9. ↑ TIMES NOW (24 March 2015). "I Hoisted Pakistan Flag & Sung Pakistani National Anthem - Asiya Andrabi". Retrieved 25 August 2016 – via YouTube.
  10. ↑ "J&K: Separatist Asiya Andrabi booked for unfurling Pakistan flag on its national day in Srinagar". 25 March 2015. Retrieved 25 August 2016.
  11. ↑ "Hurriyat leader Asiya slaughters cow to defy ban in Srinagar". Retrieved 25 August 2016.
  12. ↑ Shujaat Bukhari (2010-08-28). "Asiya Andrabi arrested". The Hindu. Retrieved 2013-07-24.
  13. ↑ "J&K: Separatist Asiya Andrabi arrested for hoisting Pakistani flag". 18 September 2015. Retrieved 25 August 2016.
  14. ↑ "J-K separatist leader Asiya Andrabi arrested in Srinagar". Retrieved 25 August 2016.
  15. ↑ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2015-10-04. Retrieved 2015-10-02.
  16. ↑ http://www.aninews.in/videogallery9/43585-dukhtaran-e-millat-039-s-members-protest-against-asiya-andrabi-039-s-re-arrest-in-kashmir.html[]
  17. ↑ http://www.greaterkashmir.com/news/kashmir/dukhtaran-e-millat-protests-asiya-s-re-arrest-in-srinagar/197730.html
  18. 1 2 3 4 "Life and times of Asiya Andrabi". Rahiba R Parveen. Pakistan Ka Khuda Hafiz(Policy Institute of Pakistan). 11 March 2014. Retrieved 3 April 2015.
  19. 1 2 3 "Asiya Andrabi's 3 nephews arrested in Pakistan for "terror links"". 11 September 2013. Retrieved 25 August 2016 – via The Hindu.
  20. ↑ 20th Paragraph in the article discuss about Asiya's belief. http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/inside-kashmirs-new-islamist-movement/article580687.ece?ref=relatedNews The Hindu 19 August 2010
  21. ↑ "Markazi Jamiat Ahle Hadees Hind". Retrieved 25 August 2016.
  22. ↑ "Life and times of Asiya Andrabi". Pakistan Ka Khuda Hafiz. 11 March 2014. Retrieved 6 May 2015. Read 35th line
  23. 1 2 3 "A mastermind of Kashmir protests". 29 August 2010. Retrieved 25 August 2016 – via The Hindu.
  24. ↑ "Interpreting the Kashmiri vote". The Hindu. 13 December 2014. Retrieved 26 April 2015. Read 7th Paragraph where they blamed the then CM Omar Abdullah and the police force under him for killings of 112 people.
  25. ↑ "Kashmir's new danger". Kashmir Herald. 25 March 2015. Retrieved 25 March 2015.
  26. ↑ "Andrabi Seeking Indian Passport for Son Hypocrisy: Omar". Outlook. 18 August 2010. Retrieved 4 April 2015.
  27. ↑ "We are for tricolour flag and our future lies with India: Andrabi". Blog of Darakshan Andrabi. Retrieved 31 July 2008.
  28. ↑ ""Omar has failed Kashmir", "Asiya is adopting duality".". Indian Express. 29 August 2010. Retrieved 3 April 2015.
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