India sentences Kashmiri leader Asiya Andrabi to life

An Indian special court has sentenced Kashmiri leader Asiya Andrabi to life imprisonment, while two of her associates, Sofi Fehmeeda and Nahida Nasreen, were sentenced to 30 years in prison under India’s infamous Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA).

The three were convicted on charges of “conspiracy to commit terrorist acts” and “waging war against the state.”

Yet the court simultaneously admitted there was no evidence of terrorist activities, terrorism financing, or actual war-making. Instead, it relied on her speeches, interviews, and social media posts advocating for Kashmir’s liberation and right to self-determination.

A leader of Kashmiri resistance

Andrabi founded Dukhtaran-e-Millat (Daughters of the Nation) in 1987, an all-women organization that emerged during the early years of Kashmir’s armed resistance against Indian occupation.

The group became one of the most visible symbols of Kashmiri defiance, mobilizing women to protest enforced disappearances, extrajudicial killings, and the systematic erosion of Kashmiri identity under Indian rule.

Dukhtaran-e-Millat organized boycotts of Indian elections, which India touted as exercises in democracy while refusing to honor the Kashmiri people’s right to self-determination.

The group was banned by the Indian government in 2019, the same year India revoked Article 370 and imposed a sweeping military lockdown on the region.

Andrabi was arrested by India’s National Investigation Agency in April 2018, part of a broader crackdown on Kashmiri political leaders and activists that intensified in the years following India’s revocation of the region’s limited autonomy. Her imprisonment is one of the longest-running detentions of a Kashmiri woman political leader.

Her husband, Qasim Faktoo, has also been languishing in Indian prisons for over three decades.

The investigation agency had sought life imprisonment for Andrabi, arguing in court that she had “waged war against India” and that the harshest penalty was necessary to deter her from acting against the state.

Rights groups condemn ruling
Various Kashmiri and international rights groups have strongly condemned the move.

“Prolonged pre-trial detention, denial of due process, and the imposition of life sentences amounting to incarceration until natural death require urgent international legal scrutiny,” the Worldwide Lawyers Association (WOLAS) said in a statement.

Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, a prominent Kashmiri religious and political leader, expressed similar concern over the sentences.
Legal experts and Kashmiri leaders have long accused India of invoking terror charges to criminalize the movement for self-determination and to crush dissent. The verdict follows their conviction in January but also adds to a growing list of prosecutions of political figures in Indian-occupied Kashmir under the UAPA, a law widely criticized by civil liberties groups for its arbitrariness and use as a tool of political repression.

In 2021, the Organization of Islamic Cooperation condemned the imprisonment of Andrabi and her two associates on “baseless charges.”

A pattern of repression
The case is among a series of high-profile prosecutions of Kashmiri leaders in recent years. Yasin Malik was sentenced to life imprisonment in 2022 under similar charges, while journalist Irfan Mehraj has been held without trial for three years, his detention a stark reminder of India’s assault on press freedom in occupied Kashmir.

India has imposed several restrictions in the Muslim-majority region after revoking its constitutional autonomy in 2019, a move that triggered a sweeping military lockdown, plunged the region into a months-long communication blackout, and accelerated the colonization of Kashmiri land by Hindu nationalist settlers.

UAPA: A tool to silence dissent
The Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act has long been condemned by human rights organizations for its vagueness and its use to target political opponents, activists, and those advocating for self-determination. Under the law, individuals can be detained without charge for extended periods, and convictions often carry severe sentences with limited recourse for appeal.

Rights groups have accused India of using repression to suppress the Kashmiri people’s right to self-determination, a right affirmed by numerous United Nations resolutions. The sentencing of Andrabi and her associates represents the latest chapter in India’s decades-long campaign to criminalize Kashmiri resistance, treating the legitimate aspiration for freedom as an act of terrorism.