00:04All right, big news coming in, the Delhi court sentencing Kashmiri separatist lead Asya Andrabi to life imprisonment in the
00:12UAPA case.
00:13This is big, big news coming in. Remember, Asya Andrabi had been behind bars for a long time, but we
00:19are told now and when she was charged by the National Investigation Agency of waging war against India,
00:25specifically through her Hate Speech, Criminal Conspiracy and Unlawful Activities Prevention Act, the UAPA, along with two associates, has faced
00:34life sentence now.
00:36Just to give you a background for those who may not know much about Asya Andrabi, the woman in the
00:41wail, also not just for herself, had been pushing for young women in Kashmir,
00:46for Muslim girls to go under the wail forcibly, had been putting forth that extreme ultra-conservative approach,
00:54apart from, of course, the separatist activities against India. Andrabi had founded a popular separatist group, Dukhtarane Millar.
01:02This was in 1987, before 1990, and she has been arrested since 2018. Now, this group was subsequently banned,
01:11but the manner in which it was able to spread out its agendas and propagandas and basically be able to
01:18inflict, if I can add, a lot of horror activities against especially the youngsters, the teenagers,
01:26young women there in Kashmir. And it was not just Asya Andrabi, but Asya Andrabi and her husband,
01:31both of them have faced charges over the years.
01:34Anisha Mathur joins me for the latest on that. Anisha, give us more details.
01:38What has the Delhi court said? And who are the associates? And what do we mean when we say life
01:43sentence?
01:44Well, Pooja, life sentence in cases like this effectively means life till the last breath.
01:50Now, the trial court, the special NIA court in Delhi, has pronounced its verdict in closed proceedings just a few
01:58minutes ago.
01:58So, we are still waiting to get the details of the order.
02:02But what I can tell you is that Dukhtarane Millar, the chief Asya Andrabi, as well as her two co
02:09-accused,
02:10Sophie Fehmida and Nahida Nasreen.
02:12Now, Asya Andrabi has been given life imprisonment, while the other two co-convicts have been awarded 30 years imprisonment
02:21each.
02:22So, it effectively means Asya Andrabi, who was arrested in 2018 for separatist activities, will now remain in jail till
02:30her death.
02:31Remember, in January, on 14th of January, the NIA special court in Delhi had convicted the three for waging war
02:39against India,
02:40for separatist activities, under various provisions of the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act.
02:46They had also been convicted for hate speech, they had also been convicted for spreading disaffection against the Indian state.
02:55All of these were the IPC offences.
02:58So, under UAPA and IPC offences in January, all three of them had been convicted.
03:02For the last several weeks, the court had been hearing arguments on the sentencing for these three women.
03:10And the NIA had called for the most stringent punishment.
03:13It's basically a big validation for the National Investigation Agency as well, for terror activities that have now been confirmed.
03:21And with conviction of a life sentence that has come in on Asya Andrabi and two more associates.
03:26Anisha, thank you for that big break.
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