Life of Kashmiri Political Prisoners and the Carceral State

Post Date: June 28, 2026

This panel analyses the carceral regime imposed in Kashmir by reflecting on political imprisonment, law, and resistance. Focusing on the recent life sentence of Asiya Andrabi, founder of Dukhtaran-e-Millat, the panelists will examine how dissent is transformed almost naturally into terrorism and criminality by deploying narrow security frames and legislation. Asiya Andrabi’s case will be analysed within broader patterns of detention of Kashmiris through preventive detention, enforced disappearances, and rampant use of Public Safety Act (PSA) and Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA), as well as limits on advocacy. The panel will illustrate how incarceration reshapes family life, lived experience, political memory, gender justice, affective worlds, and public discourse in Kashmir in the hope of opening conversations on the human, legal, and political costs and consequences of imprisonment.

Panelists:

Ahmed Bin Qasim, Asiya Andrabi’s son & writer

Ather Zia, Professor & Author

Mirza Saaib Bég, Lawyer

Imraan Mir, Moderator

(85) Life of Kashmiri Political Prisoners and the Carceral State – YouTube

Co-hosted by: Just Peace Advocates, South Asian Diaspora Action Collective (SADAC), South Asia Solidarity Group, Kashmir Law and Justice Project (KLJP), Kashmir Scholars Consultative Advocacy Network (KSCAN)

Part of a Panel Series: This panel series aims to examine political imprisonment in the context of the expanding carceral state in Kashmir. The goal is to create a much-needed public educational resource – an archive of expertise and testimony on political imprisonment. Discussions will focus on incarceration, surveillance, and ‘counter-terror’ legislation and how political life, civil society, advocacy, journalism, memory, and the everyday experience are being reshaped in Kashmir. Dates tbc.
Panel 2: Human Rights Activism and the Surveillance State
Panel 3: Journalism, Knowledge, and Criminalization: The Case of Irfan Mehraj
Panel 4: Political Leadership, and Carceral State