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Asiya’s kin arrested in Pak on militancy charges

Kashmir Times. Dated: 9/10/2013 11:46:02 PM

ISLAMABAD, Sep 10 (Agencies): In a major development that has gone almost unnoticed, Pakistan police arrested a relative of senior Kashmiri leader Aasiya Andrabi from Kashmir Valley on “terrorism-related charges” over the weekend.
But Ms Andarabi’s another relative is reported to have escaped a raid carried out by Pakistan’s federal capital police on Saturday on a house in Khayaban-i-Kashmir on the outskirts of the city.
Police arrested a man identified as Mohammad Shoaib and recovered a huge cache of arms and ammunition. Police also claimed to have seized four remote-controlled spy planes.
The man, who ran escaped, is said to be one Syed Irtiqaz Nabi Gilani.
Both Shoaib and Gilani, police sources said, are from Kashmir Valley.
A source claimed that Gilani was nephew of Ms Andarabi, the chief of Dukhtaran-i-Millat (DeM) or Daughters of the Nation.
This all-women Islamic group’s is a Kashmiri separatist group and its agenda includes imposition of Islamic law in Kashmir.
The DeM has not been involved in militancy so far but is known for its vigilantism.
The link of Shoaib and Gilani with Ms Andarabi, a diplomatic source said, was exposed when Indian intelligence intercepted Hurriyat leaders’ calls after the raid.
Shoaib, police sources said, had come recently from Saudi Arabia. Gilani was in Pakistan over the past few months and he had been moving around.
Initially, he had stayed in Muzzafarabad and then went to Abbottabad before coming to Islamabad.
Police are looking into “their international linkages and bank accounts,” according to a source.
If proven, the arrest is the first in Pakistan of someone linked to senior Kashmiri leadership from the Kashmir Valley.