Woman separatist leader and Dukhtaran-e-Millat (DeM) chief Asiya Andrabi on Sunday was detained by police in south Kashmir’s Banihal area.
Earlier in the day, Andrabi had claimed that members of al Qaeda had approached her for jihad in Pakistan, but she had turned them down.
A DeM source said Andrabi was on her way to attend a religious programme when she was detained and moved to an unknown location.
The police declined to say why Andrabi was detained.
In an interview to a Srinagar-based website, Andrabi had said, “Some people from Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) came to me from Saudi Arabia. They told me they belonged to al Qaeda and wanted to start Ghazwa-e-Hind from Pakistan.”
Andrabi did not say when she was approached by the al Qaeda members.
“There were five to six people. They gave me a pen drive and showed me some lectures by Sheikh Osama (Osama bin Laden) and his subordinates,” she said.
“I told them, ‘if you want to start jihad from Pakistan, then please get out of here.’”
The Dukhtaran-e-Millat is an all-woman separatist organisation active in Kashmir since 1989.
{{/usCountry}}The Dukhtaran-e-Millat is an all-woman separatist organisation active in Kashmir since 1989.
{{/usCountry}}In the interview, Andrabi also spoke about the arrest of her nephews in Pakistan this year for their alleged links with al Qaeda.
“My nephew Shoaib Andrabi was arrested... My brother-in-law Mujhid Gilani is in hospital but there is no news of his son Irtiyaz Gilani, who was studying aeronautical engineering. Pakistan police say Irtiyaz fled during the shooting, but I checked and it is not true.”