A National Investigation Agency court in Delhi on Wednesday convicted Kashmiri separatist leader Asiya Andrabi and two of her associates under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act, PTI reported.

Andrabi, alleged to be the founder and chief of the banned all-women separatist group Dukhtaraan-e-Millat, had been arrested in April 2018 by the Jammu and Kashmir Police for allegedly planning a large-scale demonstration in Anantnag, the news agency reported. She had been sent to jail in Srinagar.

In July 2018, Andrabi and her associates, Nahida Nasreen and Fahmeeda Sofi, were arrested by the NIA from the Srinagar jail.

The central agency had registered a case under the anti-terror law against the three women for being members of a banned organisation, waging war against the state, sedition and criminal conspiracy. They were formally charged in February 2021.

Additional Sessions Judge Chander Jit Singh of the NIA court had been hearing the case.

On Wednesday, the judge found them guilty of offences under sections of the UAPA pertaining to conspiracy and membership of a terrorist organisation, PTI reported.

The court also convicted the three women under sections of the Indian Penal Code related to promoting enmity between groups, imputations, assertions prejudicial to national-integration, conspiracy to wage war against Government of India, criminal conspiracy and statements conducing to public mischief.

The bench will hear the arguments on their sentencing on Saturday.

Andrabi is the second separatist leader to be convicted by an NIA court after Yasin Malik since the abrogation of Article 370 of the Constitution in 2019, which had granted special status to the erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir.