The government on Tuesday suspended the passport of Kashmiri separatist leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani for four weeks.
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“Geelani submitted his biometric data, finger prints and iris scan, at the designated counter”, an official of the Regional Passport Office.
The spokesman had also said Geelani has, many times in past 25 years, received invitations from OIC but due to non-availability of the travel documents, he could not participate in those meetings. The Indian Government has suspended Gilani’s passport to prevent his participation in OIC meetings. “That is why they are not allowing him to travel to New York”, he said.
“This is an attack on the freedom of expression”.
“There is no democracy in India. It is a calculated move by government to bar Geelani from travelling outside India”, he said. Hurriyat Conference, which is an amalgam of various Kashmiri separatist parties and groups, has an observer status in the OIC.
Separatists leader Geelani said the procedure for receiving a visa was on and papers had been presented at the United States government office.
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“He will influence world leaders to work for the resolution of the long-pending Kashmir dispute according to its historical perspective”, the Hurriyat had said while accepting the invite. Even though he had declared himself as an Indian in the passport application form, he later insisted that he did it out of compulsion. “It is a compulsion”, he said. The Ministry of External Affairs had recently issued him a passport with nine months’ validity, Shah said.
