Hurriyat leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani passes away
Syed Ali Shah Geelani (29 September 1929 - 1 September
2021) was a pro-Pakistani Kashmiri separatist leader in the Indian union territory
of Jammu and Kashmir. He was previously a member of Jamaat-e-Islami Kashmir but
later on founded Tehreek-e-Hurriyat. He has served as the chairman of All
Parties Hurriyat Conference, a conglomerate of pro-separatist parties in Jammu
and Kashmir. He was an MLA from the Sopore constituency of Jammu and Kashmir in
1972, 1977, and in 1987. He quit the Hurriyat in June 2020. He passed away on 1
September 2021 at his home
Syed Ali Shah Geelani Early life
Syed Ali Geelani was born in the town Sopore Baramulla,
North Kashmir, on 29 September 1929. He was educated at Sopore and finished
his studies at the Oriental College, Lahore (in present-day Pakistan)
Syed Ali Shah Geelani Political activism
Geelani has been viewed as a key separatist leader in
Kashmir. Omar Abdullah, former Chief Minister of Jammu and Kashmir, has blamed
Geelani for the rise in militancy and bloodshed in Kashmir, while Omar's father
and former Union Minister Farooq Abdullah has urged Geelani to follow a path
which would "save Kashmiri people from further destruction". In October
2013 he was re-elected for the fourth time to serve a three-year term as the
chairman of Hurriyat Conference (G), a faction of the All Parties Hurriyat The conference, which split up in 2003. He founded the Tehreek-e-Hurriyat
party, to which he was separately re-elected as chairman for a three-year term
in September 2013.
Geelani has called for numerous general strikes or
shutdowns, in response to the deaths of unnamed suspected militants, local
militants and the death of civilians in Kashmir.
Syed Ali Shah Geelani received the invitation to
participate in the annual meeting of the foreign ministers of member states of
the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) and the Kashmir Contact Group to
be held in New York from 27 September 2015.
After the death of Burhan Muzaffar Wani and the ongoing
2016 Kashmir Unrest that lasted for five consecutive months, to restore
normalcy in Kashmir, Geelani sent a letter to United Nations listing six
Confidence Building measures (CBMS)
Syed Ali Shah Geelani Personal life
Geelani lives in Hyderpora, Srinagar. Geelani has 2 sons;
Nayeem and Naseem, and four daughters; Anisha, Farhat Jabeen, Zamshida, and
Chamshida.[34] Anisha and Farhat are Geelani’s daughters from his second
marriage. Nayeem and his wife are both doctors who used to live and practice medicine
in Rawalpindi Pakistan, but they returned to India in 2010. Geelani's younger
son, Naseem works at an agricultural university in Srinagar. Geelani's grandson
Izhaar is a crew member in a private airline in India. Geelani's daughter
Farhat is a Madani teacher in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia and her husband is an
engineer there. Geelani's other grandchildren are studying in leading schools of
India. His cousin Ghulam Nabi Fai is presently in London. Ruwa Shah, daughter of
Kashmiri separatist Altaf Ahmad Shah (SAS Geelani's son-in-law) is a
journalist. She previously worked as a journalist in India with organizations
including the dawn, IANS, Quint and
