Geelani walks free

Views from Srinagar

Sameer Showkin Lone

HURRIYAT Conference (G) Chairman, Syed Ali Geelani, offered the Friday congregational
prayers here at Jamia Masjid Hyderpora after a gap of 8-years as government lifted curbs on his movement.
Geelani appealed people to follow the joint Hurriyat programs which will be released in a span of few weeks. A day after Director General of Police S P Vaid said that the three separatist leaders –Geelani, Mirwaiz Umar and Yasin Malik—“are free to go anywhere they wish to,” Geelani said it will be now interesting to see whether the government allows them the “political space which has been denied to them since long”.
Geelani said that a “new strategy will be framed after thorough consultations with Mirwaiz and Yasin Sahab”, who are part of the Joint Resistance Leadership. “We will meet and discuss the future strategy,” Geelani said.
The ailing Hurriyat leader visibly looked frail when he stepped out of his home after some four years, as per his party men, to address a public gathering.
Accompanied by recently appointed Tehreek-e-Hurriyat chairman and his long time associate Ashraf Sehrai, the duo drove in the white ambassador car towards the nearby Jamia Masjid amid pro-freedom slogans. A police Rakshak vehicle followed Geelani’s “car until it entered into the premises of the mosque.”
As soon as the news of Geelani’s release spread in the area, hundreds of people, including women and children, thronged the Masjid to listen to the speech of Geelani. They were seen shouting slogans in favour of freedom.
Geelani appeared at the Hyderpora chowk, where youth in large numbers had already assembled.
They shouted pro-Geelani and pro-Sehrai slogans. However some youth shouted pro-Zakir Musa slogans, but were later stopped by others. School and college girls were seen capturing Geelani’s short rally in their mobile phones.
In his 15-minute speech inside the Jamia Masjid, Geelani said that except the “Right to Self Determination (RSD) nothing is acceptable.
“The United Nations (UN) is witness to the promise India has done with the people of Kashmir…but New Delhi is now backtracking from its promises,” Geelani said.
He said the Indian rule in Kashmir was always temporary and it will end one day, but the people “have to remain steadfast and forge unity at all levels.” “God’s help will come…we don’t have to lose faith,” he said. Appealing youth to read and study comprehensively Sir Mohammad Iqbal and his poetry, Geelani said the essence of Iqbal’s poetry is worth to “read and understand”.
He asked the youth to put themselves completely into the Islamic fabric and follow the religion for the betterment of the worldly life and hereafter. “The success is when youth completely follow Islam and make it a way of life,” he added.
Soon after the Friday prayers, minor clashes erupted when few youth appeared from a by-lane and pelted stones on the police vehicles on the roadside.
Meanwhile, in separate reports the people of Azad Kashmir and of Pakistan praised highly the steadfastness of Syed Ali Geelani in facing the turbulent times confined into four walls continuously for eight long years.
Kashmir Peace Institute Secretary-General Syed Hameed Shaheen Alvi in a spoken remark lauded the mountainous will of Syed Ali Geelani. He inspires, he is firm, he is resolute, he added.

—Courtesy: RK

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