SRINAGAR: In the first such measure, the National Investigation Agency (NIA) on Wednesday attached the house of jailed Kashmiri woman separatist leader Asiya Andrabi under the stringent Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA).On Wednesday, NIA sleuths pasted an attachment order on the main gate of Asiya Andrabi’s 90 Ft Road, Soura, home in downtown Srinagar. According to NIA, the house is registered in the name of Late Mahmooda Begum, wife of Ghulam Hassan Shah, who is Asiya Andrabi’s mother-in-law.
Asiya, a pro-Pakistan separatist leader, heads the woman separatist group Dukhtaran-e-Millat (daughters of nation). “…the NIA has a reason to believe that the property represents proceeds of terrorism and the house was used for the furtherance of terrorist activities of a proscribed terrorist organisation,” reads the attachment order. A spokesman of NIA said the approval to attach the property was granted by J&K Director General of Police, as required by law.
The copy of attachment order, he said, has also been endorsed to Deputy Commissioner, Srinagar. “The attachment has been done in connection with investigation FIR No -17/2018/NIA-DLI(DEM Case),” the NIA spokesman said. Asiya along with two of her close aides Sofi Fehmeeda and Nahida Nasreen, who were arrested on July 6, 2018, by NIA, have already been charge-sheeted on November 11, 2018. All three accused are at present lodged in Delhi’s Tihar jail.
In the charge sheet, NIA had accused Dukhtaran of being a “terrorist organisation” engaged in anti-India activities and inciting populace of Kashmir for an armed rebellion against the Government of India with aid and assistance of terrorist organisations based in Pakistan. Asiya, Fehmeeda and Nasreen were also accused of using Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, TV channels, including channels in Pakistan, to spread hateful messages and speeches against India.
Aasiya was openly advocating secession of J&K from India and its merger with Pakistan. The NIA charge sheet had accused Asiya of establishing close contact with Pakistan-based Jamaat-ud-Dawah and Lashkar-e-Taiba chief Hafiz Saeed. Asiya husband Mohammad Qasim Faktoo is in jail and is serving a life sentence.
Centre bans Sikhs for Justice
The Centre on Wednesday banned pro-Khalistani group Sikhs for Justice (SFJ) indulging in anti-national activities and activities “which are prejudicial to the internal security of India”. The US-based secessionist group, which was formed in 2007, has been active for the last four years and also been pushing for Referendum 2020 for the self-determination of Sikhs as part of its separatist agenda.
Stating it was “necessary” to ban the group, the government declared it an unlawful organisation for five years. A senior MHA official said that all major representative bodies of the Sikh community, during various consultations by the government supported the ban. The official said that the National Investigation Agency, Punjab Police and Uttrakhand Police have registered as many 12 cases against activist of SFJ in India. Thirty-nine people have been arrested in these 12 cases.