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Veteran Kashmiri separatist leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani, passed away at his residence in Srinagar late on the evening of Wednesday, 1 September.
Geelani was a lifelong chairperson of the ‘All Party Hurriyat Conference’ (APHC) and a member of Jamaat-e-Islami (JEI). The 92-year-old had supported an armed struggle against India, and had been the motivation for thousands of Kashmiri militants to join the resistance in the 1990s.
Calling Geelani a 'Kashmiri freedom fighter', Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan said after Geelani’s passing away, "We in Pakistan salute his courageous struggle and remember his words: 'Hum Pakistani hain aur Pakistan hamara hai.'"
A sworn votary of Kashmir’s accession to theocratic Pakistan, Geelani had changed his affiliations quite a few times in his 70-year-long political career.
After serving three terms in the assembly, and having taken many oaths of upholding India’s sovereignty and integrity, Geelani called Jammu and Kashmir a ‘disputed territory’, and pleaded for its solution – ‘either through tripartite talks between India, Pakistan, and Kashmir, or through the implementation of the United Nations resolutions of 1948 and 1949’.
From 1993 to 2003, Geelani served as the APHC’s chairperson. However, his support for militancy and a sustained criticism of chairperson Mirwaiz Umer Farooq to take action against the late Abdul Gani Lone’s Peoples Conference, for proxy participation in the assembly elections of 2002, led to a split in the APHC.
Most of the pro-Pakistan constituents sided with Geelani, however, groups like Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front, High Court Bar Association and Jamaat-e-Islami (JEI) stood neutral.
More than a decade later, on 29 June 2020, Geelani resigned from the APHC, an amalgam of over two dozen separatist and pro-Pakistan outfits, surprising many, for it was seen as a betrayal of the fissures in Kashmir’s separatist camp.
This came after the Bharatiya Janata Party government at the Centre revoked Jammu and Kashmir’s special status in 2019, and bifurcated it into two union territories.
Geelani's daughter Ruwa Shah had then written in an essay for Al Jazeera, "Aba’s health deteriorated rapidly after 5 August 2019 – the day the Indian government scrapped Kashmir’s partial autonomy. He fell into a deep depression, and for good reason – since that day, almost all members of his party are behind bars."
Meanwhile, fearful that Geelani's funeral might attract large crowds, the police has imposed restrictions across the Valley, including suspension of internet services.
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Published: 02 Sep 2021,10:53 AM IST