Author: Bashaarat Masood
Publication: The Indian Express
Dated: September 1, 2005
Introduction: Dukhtaran-i-Millat
'raids' cybercafes, shuts restaurant
Veiled in black cloaks, these women
made headlines for targeting women who didn't wear veils. Now claiming
that they were leading a campaign to "check moral decline", the Valley's
hardline women's organisation, Dukhtaran-i-Millat, announced today that
it had raided what they called brothels and even cybercafes in Srinagar.
At a local hotel, while spelling
out the need of a "movement" against what she called "moral decline in
society", Millat chairperson Asiya Andrabi said: "The Kashmir issue is
lingering on... The political leadership is working only on one front.
India is fighting on various fronts and the moral degradation in the society
is part of their plan. So our Majlis Shoora (highest decision-making body)
decided to take on the other fronts. Let's fill this vacuum."
For the first time, the group claimed
to have raided "brothels" in the city and also sealed a local restaurant.
They said they had picked up a girl allegedly involved in the racket.
"We made a formal appeal to these
girls, through newspaper posters, to come back to the fold," said Andrabi.
"We had also appealed to the general public to inform us about any such
activity in order to play their role in weeding out the menace of prostitution."
The Millat activists also raided
some cybercafes and "found some young
boys and girls inside these cabins.
There were school and college students in these cabins," she said. "We
took their telephone numbers and informed their parents." The Millat has
constituted a team of married women-Maryam Squad-that raids these hotels
and restaurants, Andrabi said.
Andrabi, who was underground for
many years and was also jailed, claimed: "We are re-opening our office
soon. In the past our dawah programme was affected. Our schools were also
closed. Now we have re-started them."
