Srinagar:
Jammu and Kashmir Police have achieved a major success when it arrested pro-Pakistan hardline woman separatist leader Asiya Andrabi, believed to be one of the masterminds of present unrest, along with an accomplice from the outskirts of the city.
The 47-year-old chief of Dukhtaran-e-Millat, was picked from her hideout by a special team, headed by SSP (Srinagar) Ashiq Bukhari, along with her 'second-in-command', Fahmeeda, from Malpor Zakura this morning.
Perceived as bringing in Taliban-like rules which includes veils for women, opposition to girl education and ban on using of cosmetics, Andrabi, who has been leading a separatist campaign, had been evading arrest for long.
She is alleged to have been receiving regular funds from Pakistan-based terror outfit Lashker-e-Toiba (LeT). Several crack teams were formed to nab her and her arrest is said to be significant in view of the fact that she has been out of the police net for long.
She was taken to undisclosed location for interrogation. Andrabi is likely to be booked under Public Safety Act.
She has been acting in tandem with another separatist leader Masarat Alam, who is said to be behind the stone-pelting campaign in the state. Alam is evading arrest.
Her double standards came to the fore in the wake of her desperate attempts to get a passport for her son to reportedly enable him to travel to Malaysia to pursue studies.
This was exposed at a time when the pro-Pakistani leader opposed to any easing of protests in the Kashmir valley to prevent disruption of school and college studies. She had made all out efforts to get her son a passport.
Desperate to see that her child's education does not suffer, she had also approached the courts for a direction that the document be provided to her son.
The boy, who secured 73 percent marks in class 12th, had applied for passport in March this year through his uncle as he was minor at the time of filing the application.
Ironically, Andrabi, who is struggling hard for her son's passport so that his studies are not hampered, had issued a statement earlier saying "losses of life, material and the education of children are inevitable..."