Hardliners had ransacked bars in Kashmiri capital
Police in Indian-controlled Kashmir have arrested the head of a hardline women's separatist group which has attacked hotels and bars 'to stop moral degradation'.
Asiya Andrabi, the firebrand leader of Dukhtaran-e-Millat ('Daughters of Faith'), was arrested on Thursday night with six female comrades.
Armed with willow sticks, about 20 veiled women of the banned group had stormed more than 25 hotels, bars and restaurants in the Himalayan state's capital of Srinagar this week, ransacking them.
While the group's Mariam Squad, named after the Virgin Mary, smashed liquor bottles at the bars and dragged young couples out of restaurants, Ms Andrabi said her organisation was determined to clean up Kashmiri society, 'come what may'.
'According to the Koran, liquor is the mother of all vices. It makes a man weak morally, finally forcing him into crimes which he would have not committed in most cases, if he distanced himself from liquor,' she said before her arrest.
