The coalition Government in Jammu & Kashmir will investigate allegations against radical all-woman Dukhtaran-e-Millat outfit chief Asiya Andrabi that she is launching youngsters to join Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS). Andrabi has denied the allegations levelled by three youngsters from Hyderabad who were arrested by police at Nagpur Airport on way to Srinagar.
“Definitely, the Government and police will verify these facts. There is every apprehension of such a thing. If it is proved then the Government will act as per law”, Deputy Chief Minister and senior BJP leader Nirmal Singh told reporters in Jammu when asked about the revelations made by the arrested youngsters.
The youngsters —Mohammad Abdulla Basith, Maaz Hassan Farooq and Syed Omer Farooq Hussaini — all aged between 20 and 22 years, were picked up from Nagpur Airport last week when they had booked tickets for Srinagar and were about to board the plane. The youth were arrested on December 27.
A police officer in Hyderbad said that the trio revealed during the interrogation that they had plans to join ISIS and wanted to meet Dukhtaran chief Andrabi and Hizbul Mujahideen militants in Kashmir. Though they had no prior link with Andrabi, they intended to use the name of their late uncle Syed Salahuddin, who was a former head of Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI).
Andrabi said that she did not know the arrested youngsters but admitted that she visited Salahuddin’s family on his demise last year.
Andrabi’s mother died on the day when youngsters were arrested. She told reporters that it was a plot to frame her in a false case. “I have no links with ISIS and I don’t know the people who have been arrested”, she said.
The trio has reportedly confessed to holding jihadi ideology. They had plans to go to Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria and Palestine via Kashmir to join jihadi forces of ISIS/ISIl to wage war against the state, the police claimed in Hyderabad.
Andrabi is in news for her hardline, pro-Pakistan and Islamist views. last month Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharief in a letter to Andrabi hailed her “commitment” for the “freedom movement of Kashmir” and pledged Pakistan’s support to Kashmiri people. She was booked for hoisting Pakistani flags and defying ban on sale and possession of beef in Jammu & Kashmir. She publicly slaughtered a cow in Srinagar when the State High Court imposed beef ban, a verdict that created huge controversy.
