April 3, 2026
Source: PTI
On March 24, Kashmiri resistance leader Asiya Andrabi was handed three life sentences under a’s draconion ‘anti-terror’ laws, the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA). This is despite the fact that the court was unable to provide evidence that she committed, funded, or carried out violent activities.
Two of her female associates, Sofi Fahmeeda, 36, and Nahida Nasreen, 61, also received 30 years each.
Andrabi is an elderly 64 year old woman. Her sentence marks the first time a Kashmiri woman, jailed for her participation in Kashmir’s self-determination movement, has been sentenced to life.
Andrabi has already spent over fifteen years of her life moving from prison to prison. Most of the charges were under the Public Safety Act, another draconian anti-terror law.
The PSA is a preventive detention law whereby a person can be detained on mere suspicion or without evidence. It circumvents the ordinary judiciary trial. It has created a routinized system of “revolving door detention,” where a new order can extend the detention of a person.
Amnesty International has described the PSA as a “Lawless law” that has enabled arbitrary detentions in Kashmir for decades.
The UAPA gives powers to the indian government to designate an individual as a “terrorist.” Individuals can be held in pre-trial detention for up to 180 days without bail and are detained without any reasons being disclosed.
Many Kashmiris have served time in indian prisons for years on “terror” charges before being acquitted for lack of evidence.
Anyone familiar with Andrabi knows that she is a women’s rights activist who has focused to provide Islamic education and resist against the commodification of Kashmiri women.
In 1985 she founded the first darsgah (women’s religious learning centre) in Srinagar.
Andrabi, known as the “Iron Lady” of Kashmir for her firm stance against india’s occupation, gained wider recognition in the valley through her activism on women’s issues, especially her 2006 protest against sexual exploitation of Kashmiris involving politicians, bureaucrats, and the army.
Yet, according to court documents, she was being accused of waging war against india (of which no evidence was found).
Even though the court produced no evidence of her participating in violent activities, they gave her a life sentence on a series of other lesser charges.
According to Middle East Eye that the court gave the women a harsher sentence because they were not ‘uneducated.’ This too reveals a sinister logic rooted in Islamophobia that education should secularize Muslim women and make her more palatable to the state agenda.
In a video, Andrabi’s son, Ahmed Bin Qasim spoke out against the unjust grounds of her sentence.
Ahmed bin Qasim revealed that his mother and his associates had been kept in Tihar Jail before. Previously, bin Qasim had drawn attention to how the conditions of this prison- the heat and overcrowding- had left his mother in ill health and its inmates with long term respiratory diseases.
Andrabi and her associates’ case is not the first time Kashmiri resistance leaders have been imprisoned on arbitrary charges. This, too, is one of the techniques of the indian colonial regime.
Andrabi’s husband, Qasim Fakhtoo has been behind bars for over three decades due to a forced confession extracted from him. The two spouses, despite being permitted to speak with each over phone every other week, have been barred from communicatinng with each other by prison authorities. The two have not seen each other in person since 2016.
Source: Facebook
In 2019, the two’s ancestral home was also seized based on allegations that it was being used for terrorism.
Andrabi and her husband’s case is not a first. Resistance leaders such as Yasin Malik are also serving life imprisonment on charges of ‘waging war against india’ for advocating for a free Kashmir.
Source: PTI
Meanwhile, human rights defenders such as Khurram Parvez have been in arbitrary detention- having faced no trial- since 2021.
Source: Bilal Bahadur
Even journalists like Irfan Mehraj have been detained and kept in pre-trial detention under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act since 2023. Mehraj’s only crime was reporting on the truth.
Source: Facebook
As Andrabi’s son, Ahmed bin Qasim wrote in TRT News:
“The target of the punishment is not the method of resistance, it is the resistance itself. It is the refusal to accept that Kashmir belongs to india.”
These are just the most high-profile cases. To this day, hundreds of Kashmiris remain imprisoned without legal representation, without trial, and without any justifiable basis.
These are just the most high-profile cases. To this day, hundreds of Kashmiris remain imprisoned without legal representation, without trial, and without any justifiable basis.
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Stand With Kashmir (SWK) is a Kashmiri-driven independent, transnational, grassroots movement committed to standing in solidarity with the people of indian-occupied Kashmir in ending the indian occupation of their homeland and supporting the right to self-determination of the pre-partition state of Jammu and Kashmir. We want to hear from you. If you have general inquiries, suggestions, or concerns, please email us at info@standwithkashmir.org.
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