Syed Ali Shah Geelani’s death: Centre seeks detailed report on J&K separatist leader’s burial
Geelani’s family had alleged that his body was taken away by the police and buried forcibly.
The Ministry of External Affairs has asked for a detailed report on the burial of Jammu and Kashmir separatist leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani who died on September 1, reported The Hindu on Sunday.
A senior police officer confirmed to the newspaper that a report was being written on the “sequence of events” that occurred between 10.30 pm and 5 am in the night of September 1 to September 2.
Geelani’s burial occurred in Srinagar’s Hyderpora area amid heavy security deployment. But the leader’s family had alleged that his body was taken away by the police and buried forcibly.
On September 6, the Jammu and Kashmir Police had released a series of videos on Twitter showing the last rites of separatist leader being performed.
The police had reportedly released the videos after there were claims that Geelani was buried without following the mandatory ablution and shrouding customs. Ablution means cleansing the body with water, while shrouding is covering it with a cloth.
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In one of the videos that the police released, a group of men can be seen performing the ceremonies. Other videos show funeral prayers being offered and the body being lowered into a grave in Hyderpora, a few hundred metres from Geelani’s home.
Amid the controversy surrounding Geelani’s burial, restrictions were imposed for at least five days in Srinagar, though curbs were lifted elsewhere in Jammu and Kashmir. Security forces also remained deployed across Kashmir.
Geelani had campaigned for Jammu and Kashmir to be merged with Pakistan since early 1960s. He had been opposed to talks with the Indian government for years and routinely called for the boycott of elections in Kashmir.
The leader had also been a part of the separatist All Parties Hurriyat Conference since the 1990s. But he broke away to form his own faction, the Tehreek-e-Hurriyat, in 2003.
He quit as chairperson of the Tehreek-e-Hurriyat in June 2020, eight months after the Centre scrapped Jammu and Kashmir’s special status under Article 370 of the Indian Constitution and downgraded the state into two Union territories.