Top Kashmir woman separatist leader arrested

SRINAGAR - Hardline woman separatist leader Asiya Andrabi, believed to be one of the masterminds of the current unrest in the Kashmir Valley, was arrested from a hideout here Saturday, police said.

Andrabi was arrested from Zakura on the city outskirts, a police officer told IANS.

The chief of the women’s separatist outfit Dukhtaran-e-Millat, Andrabi was issuing shutdown calendars through emails to the media and was one of the brains behind the turmoil in the valley, police said.

The 50-year-old Andrabi, a staunch votary of Jammu and Kashmir’s merger with Pakistan, had been asking Kashmiris to observe shutdowns, close down businesses and schools and participate in protest demonstrations.

She had been in hiding for the last three months.