Raising the Militant Flag in Kashmir: Asiya Andrabi’s Separatist Fight

Raising the Militant Flag in Kashmir: Asiya Andrabi’s Separatist Fight

Often labeled as a firebrand female Islamist by the media outlets in India and Pakistan, Asiya Andrabi, the founding leader of the now proscribed Kashmiri separatist women’s organization Dukhtaran-e-Milat (DeM, Daughters of the Nation), has been waging a pro-Pakistan secessionist movement since the early 1980s with the objective of Jammu and Kashmir’s (J&K) secession from the Union of India. She has also been spearheading cultural and moral policing in the state and is engaged in exhorting the Muslim women of Kashmir to join her movement to support jihad, to adopt Islamic dress code, and to desist from going to the cinemas and watching television and other videos.

Linked with several anti-India jihadist groups in Pakistan, Asiya and DeM have been under constant security surveillance. Asiya is presently serving a sentence under the Public Safety Act (PSA), a preventive detention law, for inciting Kashmiri women to throw stones at security forces and disrupting normal life (India Today, April 27; Kashmir Observer, April 27). She has been booked for subversive actions at least 20 times since 1993. According to India’s National Investigating Agency (NIA), Asiya and members of her group— which is considered to be a terrorist organization— usually act as instigators of violence and a conduit for “raising, receiving and collecting funds” for separatist and terrorist activities in Jammu and Kashmir (Firstpost, July 26).

During the height of Kashmir insurgency, Asiya Andrabi and her group was suspected to have operated under a new vigilante formation known as Lashkar-e-Jabbar (LeJ), which grew in notoriety after a few cases of acid and paint attacks on women in Srinagar were reported in August 2001. Armed militants of LeJ issued ultimatums and threatened all-girls schools to adopt a strict Islamic dress code. LeJ had the support of Asiya Andrabi and it extended the ultimatum for this dress code to be implemented following a request from DeM, which proved that both groups at the time were working in tandem. These shadowy groups then issued dress codes for non-Muslim women like Hindus and Sikhs, insisting that they  apply  a “bindi” (decorative mark) to their foreheads and cover their heads with “saffron” duppattas (scarves)(The Hindu, September 14, 2001).

Path to Extremism

Asiya is the youngest daughter of Srinagar-based health practitioner Sayeed Shahabuddin Andrabi. A graduate in science from Government Women’s College in Srinagar, Asiya Andrabi was exposed to Islamic literature at an early age by her brother Inayatullah Andrabi, a former teacher of linguistics at Kashmiri University and member of Islami Jamiat Tulba, the student wing of Jamaat-e-Islami (JeI). This changed her worldview and encouraged her to join the women’s wing of Jamaat-e-Islami, Kashmir. In the mid-1980s, Asiya distanced herself from JeI and formed Dukhtaran-e-Milat, initiating a campaign to enforce dress code for women in Kashmir. She also spearheaded anti-alcohol and anti-human trafficking/prostitution campaigns in Kashmir (DNA, January 21, 2009). In March 1987, Asiya, along with fellow activists, staged a public rally against movie theaters that were screening pornographic films and painted over posters displaying vulgarity in black. She and members of her group have also on occasion sprayed “paint on the faces of Muslim women who were not veiled” (Times of India, April 20, 2008).

Asiya Andrabi is married to Ashiq Hussain Faktoo (a.k.a Dr. Qasim), who was affiliated with Hizbul Mujhadeen (HM) in early part of his career as a militant. Having decided to live and die for the cause of Islam, Asiya reportedly wished to marry only a mujahid (Islamic fighter). Faktoo, who was given a life sentence for the murder of human rights activist lawyer H.N. Wanchoo back in 1992, was affiliated with HM during the initial years of Kashmir militancy and then formed the Jamiat-ul-Mujahideen (JuM) militant group after breaking away from HM in early 1990s (The Hindu, August 19, 2010).

In 1993, Asiya was jailed along with her infant child and husband for over a year. This episode in her life became part of jihadist folklore in Kashmir. Since then, Andrabi has been in and out of jail several times under the Public Safety Act (PSA). In August 2016, the supreme court of India rejected an appeal by Faktoo to overturn his conviction. Though both husband and wife are involved in the Kashmiri jihad, they never promoted or indoctrinated their two sons, Ahmed bin Qasim and Muhammad bin Qasim, to join the Kashmir militant bandwagon.

Jihadist Ties

The 55-year-old Asiya Andrabi remains an ardent supporter of Hafiz Muhammad Saeed, the supreme leader of Jamaat ud Dawa (JuD) and Lashkar- e-Taiba (LeT), and is very vocal about her love of Pakistan. She has been regularly featured in JuD’s anti-India or pro-Kashmir rallies in Pakistan through audio/video conferencing, specifically in the so-called “Kashmir Caravans,” a public rally from Lahore to Islambad, to protest against India and the alleged atrocities by its army in Jammu and Kashmir (Hindustan Times, August 16, 2015).

The ties between Hafiz Saeed and Asiya Andrabi’s group are believed to have become stronger during 2012, when Saeed’s LeT of Kashmir attempted to form a group of 21 female terrorists at its training camps in Muzaffarabad, Pakistan Administered (PAK). Indian Army sources have confirmed the name of the all-women squad as named Dukhtaran-e-Taiba (DeT) and that it was under the command of LeT commander Sayeed Sadaqat Hussain. Indian intelligence agencies suspected direct involvement of DeM in this collaborative conspiracy to create a group of women jihadists (Times of India, January 3, 2012).

Over the years, Asiya Andrabi’s focus has shifted from imposing Islamic dress codes on women in Kashmir to hard core Islamic ideals such as jihad. She once argued that the Muslim women of Kashmir have a right to protect their honor and homes from the enemy, which, according to her, is the Indian Army. She underscored that in Islam it is men’s duty to wage jihad, and that women would support female bombers if and when that tactic became necessary (Terrorism Monitor, April 26, 2007). At the height of the 2010 stone throwing and public protests, Asiya Andarbi worked closely with firebrand secessionist Masarat Alam Bhat, the leader of the pro-Pakistan Muslim League. The duo spearheaded the “Quit Jammu and Kashmir” campaign in Kashmir. Both the DeM and the Muslim League are constituents of the All Party Hurriyat Conference (APHC) faction led by Syed Ali Shah Geelani, leader of Tehreek-e-Hurriyat.

Like Asiya Andarbi, Masrat Alam was also highly influenced by Hafiz Saeed and has recently taken the banner of violence to a new level in Kashmir. He and Asiya both have endorsed the slogan “Hafiz Sayeed ka kya paighaam, Kashmir banega Pakistan!” (the message from Hafiz Saeed, Kashmir will merge into Pakistan) (Times of India, April 16, 2015). Andarbi’s support for Hafiz Saeed and his anti-India and the anti-West tirades reached new heights in recent years regarding the vexing issue of Balochistan “freedom” movement and Saeed’s exploits for the cause of Islam.  In an apparent voice of support for Hafiz Saeed, Asiya Andrabi said that Saeed has been working hard against the “evil designs of Indian agencies in Balochistan to disintegrate Pakistan.” According to her, the Islamic work of Saeed has not gone down well with the United States and India and their anti-Islamic agenda (Firstpost, July 26). Writing in Jamaat ud Dawa (JuD)’s Invite magazine in June 2017, Asiya Andrabi eulogized Saeed as the ‘beacon of hope, raising the voice of oppressed Kashmiris everywhere’. [1]

Pakistan and Kashmir

The pro-Pakistan stance of Asiya Andrabi along with DeM members is evident: they continue to hoist Pakistani flags in Srinagar on the occasion of Pakistan’s Independence Day on August 14, and they celebrate Pakistan Day on March 23 every year. On one such occasion in 2015, Andrabi was arrested under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act for hoisting a Pakistani flag in Srinagar on Pakistan National Day, during which she said that “Jammu and Kashmir is not a part of India” and that the criminal code banning the hoisting of the Pakistani flag is therefore not applicable to her (Jandk News, March 25, 2015).

A cursory look at Asiya Andrabi’s career as a leading female Islamist leader in Kashmir sheds light on her involvement and support for Kashmiri terrorist groups like HM and LeT. Following the death of HM militant Burhan Wani in July 2016, she was fingered as the mastermind behind the massive rioting and stone throwing incidents in Kashmir. Subsequently, she was quoted in JuD’s Invite magazine in August 2016, eulogizing Burhan Wani, inciting youths to sacrifice for Pakistan. She reiterated that their movement is for “Tehreek e Takmeel e Pakistan.”[2]

Conclusion

Under Asiya Andrabi’s command, DeM’s active backing of armed militants have increased manifold in recent years. The group has started openly praising militants for targeting government forces and have encouraged civilians to interfere during armed encounters, especially when militants are cornered, apparently to help rescue them (Firstpost, July 26).

DeM is also accused of encouraging Kashmir policemen to leave their jobs and instead take up arms against the Indian army’s alleged atrocities in Kashmir. The group chided and coaxed the police to join the Kashmir freedom movement. She attempted to exploit the operational differences between Indian armed forces personnel and J&K policemen during the recent Amarnath yatra, a Hindu pilgrimage to Amrnath Shrine located in South Kashmir (Indian Express, July 22). A DeM press release issued by its general secretary, Nahida Nasreen, stated that “the ruthless thrashing of the police personnel by the Indian army at Gund, Ganderbal must serve as an eye-opener to the Kashmiri cops and that they should now stop helping India maintain its illegal control over Jammu and Kashmir.” The release further said that “by donning the Indian uniform, the JKP men have accepted to be slaves of India like those politicians and bureaucrats who do everything to brutalize Kashmiris as is ordered by their masters in New Delhi” (Kashmir Life, July 23).

In April and May 2017, massive stone throwing and protest rallies were staged across Kashmir by separatist elements in reaction to the detention of Asiya Andrabi and several youths arrested during violent actions. College students — including, for the first time, young girls — threw stones and shouted freedom slogans.

From imposing veils on Kashmiri women to calling for jihad against the Indian state, the cult of Asiya Andrabi has come a long way on Kashmir’s militant landscape. As the first female militant leader in the subcontinent, she has inspired a whole generation of young women in Kashmir to follow Islam or to join the anti-India jihad.

 

NOTES

[1] Asiya Andrabi, “Kashmir Refuses to Surrender”, Invite, Issue.4, June 2017, pp.16-17, https://issuu.com/invthemag/docs/issue___4_high_res_pages

[2] The Face of Freedom, Invite (Kashmir Special Issue), Issue 1,Auust 2016, , August 2016, P. 33., https://issuu.com/invthemag/docs/premiere_issue_-_the_face_of_freedo