"We will expose those indulging in immoral activities," Andrabi, a fiery speaker
who has in the past voiced admiration for Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, told
the Current News Agency.
"We raided several places in Srinagar Monday after getting calls from people,"
she said, issuing an appeal to people to "arrest moral degradation."
The women, travelling in three-wheel auto-rickshaws and cars, were staging the
raids enveloped in head-to-toe veils in line with strict Islamic tradition, a
witness told AFP.
Police, however, declined to comment.
But they have been staging raids in Srinagar and other parts of the Kashmir
Valley over the past few weeks on brothels and made several arrests.
Andrabi, whose husband is in jail on charges of being a militant, supplied a
mobile telephone number for people to call "whenever you are convinced a man or
woman has entered some place to commit adultery."
Adultery is illegal in the state and carries a potential jail term. "During one
of the raids, the men immediately fled from the house but the women were caught
and questioned," she said, adding the group was seeking to persuade them to
change their ways.
Andrabi, 40, and mother of two sons, said the group's members were able to free
a women from two men who had lured her into becoming a prostitute.
Andrabi said members had also swooped on restaurants and Internet cafes where
they found teenage boys and girls. The group plans to talk to their parents.
The group has earlier smeared black paint on racy Bollywood film posters
portraying revealingly clad women.
It has also been campaigning for women to veil themselves fully. The drive has
been largely unsuccessful in the region, which espouses a more liberal form of
Islam.
In a break with the past when attitudes towards mixing between the sexes were
more conservative, younger people in Kashmir are frequently seen dating in
restaurants and walking in parks.
