The police on Saturday arrested hardline separatist leader and Dukhtaran-e-Millat (Daughters of Faith) chief Asiya Andrabi from Hazratbal in Kashmir.
Asiya, a prominent face behind the current wave of protests, was arrested from a house in Habak in Hazratbal which she had rented. Her deputy Fahmida, who was living with her in that house, was also arrested.
Srinagar district magistrate Meraj Din Kakru confirmed her arrest. However, he said it had not been decided whether she would be booked under the provisions of the Public Safety Act for waging war against the state.
"Everything should be clear by Monday," Kakru said.
Asiya has been at the forefront of the ongoing 'Quit Kashmir Movement' since it began in June.
Protests erupted in Kashmir on June 11 when 17-year-old student Tufail Ahmad was killed by a police teargas shell.
The next day, paramilitary forces allegedly beat up 24-year-old Muhammad Rafique Bangroo, who was protesting against Tufail's killing.
He died in hospital a week later.
On June 20, a third Kashmiri, 19-year-old Javid Ahmad Malla was killed when paramilitary forces and the police opened fire on people gathered to mourn Bangroo's death.
The chain of killings plunged the Valley into a chain of violence and pro-Azadi demonstrations.
The government clamped down on prominent separatist leaders and arrested Syed Ali Shah Geelani, Muhammad Yasin Malik and Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, who was later kept under house arrest.
With the major separatists in jail, Asiya and Muslim league chief Masarat Alam took charge.
Masarat rolled out calendars to mark the protests and strikes week after week with Asiya's support.
The Dukhtaran-e-Millat chief even issued statements against leaders who opposed the strike calendar.
The government complicated the situation by imposing a curfew on the day the separatists gave strike calls. The strikes and curfew continue in Valley for the past two months have been hampering daily life.
Asiya, who has always been seen in burqa, was born in Khaniyar in 1962. In contrast, during her college days, she is known to have a western outlook and detest the salwar kameez.
She reportedly underwent the transformation in outlook and appearance when her family refused to send her to Dalhousie in Himachal Pradesh to pursue her post-graduation.
It was during this phase that she came to don the burqa She became religious after reading a book on the life of Mariam Jameela, an American Christian who converted to Islam and dedicated her life to propagating the religion.
In 1981, she opened a school in Srinagar to teach the Quran to Muslim girls and founded the Dukhtaran-e-Millat to preach the tenets of Islam.
She married Ashiq Hussain Faktoo, who left the militant Hizbul Mujahideen to set up a religious organisation called Muslim Deeni Mahaz (Muslim Religious Front). He has been in prison since 1994 and is serving a life sentence.
She was arrested in 1993 just six months after the birth of her son.
In 2006, Asiya launched a movement to check "growingly waywardness in society" as part of which she and her followers raided restaurants and hotels and upbraided young couples.
The police did not interfere in her activism. She was recently criticised for making all-out attempts to send her son to the US for further studies despite having issued statements saying losses of life and education of children was inevitable in the Valley's struggle.
She had been in hiding for the past three months.
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