SRINAGAR: A symbol of the Kashmiri freedom movement, and former chairman of All Parties Hurriyat Conference (APHC), Syed Ali Shah Geelani passed away in the Indian-occupied Kashmir city of Srinagar. Geelani was 92.
He was an uncompromising campaigner against Indian rule and had been under house arrest for the past 11 years. He had been ill for several months.
He was suffering from multiple ailments and the continued house arrest had taken a heavy toll on his health. He had “developed serious complications on Wednesday afternoon and breathed his last in the evening”. He had chest congestion and breathing problems. He passed away at 10:30pm.
Funeral prayers of Syed Ali Geelani will be offered in absentia in all district headquarters of Azad Kashmir, the spokesman said.
Geelani’s funeral prayers will be offered at Mazar-e-Shuhada at 12 noon today, said his representative Abdullah Gilani. He said people in different areas were not allowed to leave their homes.
Abdullah said the Indian Army is not even allowing Kashmiris to see the face of their beloved leader for the last time. The Indian government has deployed the army on large scale to stop people coming from other cities to attend the funeral.
He said the army is patrolling the entire area after closing it down with barbed wires.
Geelani’s special representative said India is confused and had lost all senses. Despite it dons the garb of democracy, India is not even allowing the burial of the senior leader, said Abdullah.
Reports of the Indian occupational forces putting pressure on Geelani’s family to bury him in the night without a proper funeral surfaced soon after news of his demise broke. A security clampdown was also imposed, citing residents.
Troops put up barbed wire and barricades on roads leading to Geelani’s house in the main city of Srinagar after the family announced the death.
Hundreds of security forces were immediately deployed and media reports said a curfew would be imposed and internet services cut.
Announcements were made from loudspeakers of the main mosque near Geelani’s residence asking people to march towards the house. But scores of armored vehicles and trucks patrolled main roads in the area. Police appealed for people not to go out on the street.
The Azad Jammu and Kashmir government has announced three days of mourning on the death of Syed Ali Geelani. The death of the Kashmiri leader will be marked with a one-day holiday, said a spokesman of Azad Kashmir Prime Minister.
Syed Ali Geelani was born on September 29, 1929 in a village on the banks of Wular lake in Sopore area of Kashmir’s Baramulla district.
He remained a staunch opponent of India’s illegal occupation of Jammu and Kashmir and lead the Kashmiris’ struggle for their right to self-determination.
Since his youth Geelani had been a member of Jamaat-i-Islami, the largest political-religious organisation in Kashmir that was banned by the Hindu nationalist government in 2019.
Later on, he founded his own party by the name of Tehreek-e-Hurriyat.
Geelani had been a thorn in India’s side since the early 1960s when he began campaigning for the territory’s merger with Pakistan. He also pursued his separatist calls as a member of the Kashmir assembly, from the Sopore constituency of Jammu and Kashmir, elected three times — 1972, 1977 and 1987.
The veteran politician was jailed for nearly 10 years after 1962 and often restricted to his home after that.
He also served as the Chairman of All Parties Hurriyat Conference, a forum of freedom parties in Jammu and Kashmir, from which he stepped down last year.
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