Asiya Andrabi

Asiya Andrabi is a Kashmiri separatist and founding leader of Dukhtaran-e-Millat. This group is part of the separatist organisation All Parties Hurriyat Conference in the Kashmir Valley. Government of India has declared it as a banned organization. The organisation claims that it aims for the freedom of Kashmir from India.

Until her arrest, she was one of the most important women separatists in the valley. She is married to Ashiq Hussain Faktoo (a founding member of the Hizbul Mujahideen) in 1990. Her husband has been in jail since 1992, convicted of murder.

Asiya Andrabi had a major role in starting and backing-up various protests in the Kashmir Valley. She is best known for supporting Masarat Alam in the 2010 Kashmir unrest across Kashmir by using her village network of Dukhtaran-e-Millat operatives for rally support. Later on, she was booked for that.

On 12 September 2015, she slaughtered a cow and released a video in a bid to defy the ban on sale of beef in Jammu and Kashmir.

On 6 July 2018, Asiya was taken into custody by the National Investigation Agency (NIA).

Personal life and education Asiya did her BSc in Biochemistry. She did her post graduation in Arabic from Kashmir University. She married Ashiq Hussain Faktoo in 1990. 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.

Role in Kashmir politics In pro-Pakistan and 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.

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 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. However, she jumped into the separatist campaign, which began with the armed insurgency in 1990. and they spearheaded the “Quit Jammu and Kashmir” campaign.

Arrests She was arrested on 28 August 2010 by Jammu and Kashmir Police for waging war against India and for inciting violence. She was again arrested on 17 September 2015 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. The court granted her bail, but she was arrested again, and Kashmiris protested against her rearrest.

On 6 July 2018 Asiya and two others connected to her, Nahida Nasreen and Sofi Fahmeeda, were shifted from Srinagar jail and brought to New Delhi by the National Investigation Agency (NIA). They have been booked under various sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) for sedition apart from other things. Following this, on 16 July 2018, a Delhi court ordered the three to one month of judicial custody at Tihar Jail.

On 25 March 2026 she got life imprisonment for her conviction in Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act by a court in Delhi following her arrest in 2018 by National Investigation Agency.

Criticism In 2001, she spearheaded a campaign to impose dressing restriction over Kashmiri women, which was criticized by members of the Kashmiri community.