Mar 23, 1967Srinagar, Jammu and Kashmir, India57 years oldAries
About Ashiq Hussain Faktoo
Qasim Faktoo (also known as Mohammad Qasim) is a separatist Kashmiri militant who wants to free Jammu and Kashmir from India.
The locals in Kashmir call Faktoo "Nelson Mandela of Kashmir", due to his prolonged political imprisonment and academic accomplishments during his time in jail.As of October 2016 he is in jail since 1993.
He has been accused of the murder of human rights activist H.N Wanchoo, who was documenting Indian crimes in Kashmir.
Faktoo denies the charges, supported by an alibi.He was released in 1999 for a short span of time. In 2012, Kashmir High Court justice Mansoor Ahmad Mir ruled that he must be imprisoned until death.
He earned his PhD in Islamic Studies in the Prison, and had been working from another degree.
In 2016, India's Supreme Court rejected his plea for releasing him.His wife Asiya Andrabi is also a separatist leader and chairperson of Islamist organisation Dukhtaran-e-Millat.