Syed Ali Shah Geelani, the veteran separatist leader from Indian-administered Kashmir, has been laid to rest as the Indian authorities crack down on public movement and impose a near-total communications blackout to prevent protests.
Geelani, the icon of the disputed region’s resistance against New Delhi’s rule, died late on Wednesday. He was 92.
Kashmiri separatist leader Syed Ali Geelani was buried in a tightly controlled pre-dawn ceremony on Thursday as Indian authorities imposed a lockdown across the troubled Himalayan region.
The uncompromising campaigner against Indian rule in held Kashmir died Wednesday at the age of 92 following a long illness, and thousands of police personnel were deployed soon after to try and prevent unrest in the disputed territory.
Geelani was buried at 4:30 am Thursday at a cemetery near his home in the main city of occupied Srinagar, a police source told AFP. Only a small number of his relatives were present, including two of his sons, the source added.
Geelani, the most outspoken critic of India who spent several years in jail or under house arrest, had wanted to be buried at the Martyrs Cemetery in occupied Srinagar. But authorities rejected that request, the police source said.
Residents said authorities acted out of fear of mass mourning turning into unrest.
"Troops are everywhere, there are barbed wire blockades on every main road," said one.
After the death became known, announcements were made from loudspeakers of the main mosque near Geelani's residence asking people to march towards the house.
But police said no one in the Kashmir Valley would be allowed to leave their homes.
Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan was among the first to pay tribute to Geelani, tweeting that he was "deeply saddened" at the death of the "Kashmiri freedom fighter" who had been under house arrest for most of the past 11 years
Khan said that Geelani had "struggled all his life for his people and their right to self-determination. He suffered incarceration and torture by the occupying Indian state but remained resolute."
Paying rich tribute to his life-long struggle for justice and freedom, Pakistan’s Foreign Office (FO) said that Geelani’s unflinching commitment to the Kashmir cause, in the face of persistent persecution and tremendous personal hardship, is unparalleled.
“He was a true voice and hero of the Kashmiris’ struggle for self-determination, who never lost his ideological moorings for a single moment. Upright and steadfast, he would never compromise on the just cause that he led throughout his life from the core of his heart,” FO said.
May he continue to be an inspiration for those carrying his mission forward to bring an end to the illegal Indian occupation of Jammu and Kashmir, the statement added.
Geelani had been a thorn in India's side since the early 1960s when he began campaigning for the territory's merger with Pakistan, which controls its own section of Kashmir.
He also pursued his separatist calls as a member of the Kashmir assembly.
The veteran politician was jailed for nearly 10 years after 1962 and was often restricted to his home after that.
Since his youth, Geelani had been a member of Jamaat-i-Islami, the largest political-religious organisation in Indian Held Kashmir that was banned by India's Hindu nationalist government in 2019.
He rejected any notion of direct talks with the New Delhi government unless it formally "accepts Kashmir as a disputed territory" and stopped describing the region as an "integral part of India".
Mehbooba Mufti, a former chief minister of Kashmir, said on Twitter: "We may not have agreed on most things but I respect him for his steadfastness and standing by his beliefs."
Indian Occupied Kashmir is one of the world's most militarised zones, with 500,000 Indian security forces deployed in the region.
Tens of thousands, mainly civilians, have died since an insurgency erupted in 1989.
India has been struggling to bring normal life back to Held Kashmir after it cancelled the region's semi-autonomous status and divided it into two centrally controlled territories in August 2019.
A security clampdown imposed at the time saw mobile internet services cut for more than a year. Scores of political leaders were detained and many are still not free.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi said the move was intended to bring peace and prosperity to Indian Held Kashmir.
Separatist leaders said it was to punish the Muslim population.
