SRINAGAR: Hurriyat patriarch Syed Ali Shah Geelani died late Wednesday at his residence in Srinagar’s Hyderpora locality, leaving behind a split legacy of secessionism that he had nurtured for decades as the foremost pro-Pakistan voice in J&K. He was 92 and had been unwell for months.
An ANI report quoted IGP (Kashmir range) Vijay Kumar as saying that internet services had been suspended across the Valley as part of a series of precautionary curbs.
Referring to Geelani as “Kashmiri freedom fighter”, Pakistan PM Imran Khan announced, “The Pakistan flag will fly at half mast and we will observe a day of official mourning.”
His body will be taken to his ancestral village in Sopore for burial, family sources said.
Geelani’s death came days after speculation of an imminent ban on both factions of the Hurriyat had led to a signboard of the Tehreek-e-Hurriyat being hurriedly removed from the annexe of his family home. In a way, it seemed to mark the passing of the Hurriyat mantle to the other faction led by Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, who remained defiant amid murmurs of a ban.
Watch Syed Ali Shah Geelani, Hurriyat founder and hawk among separatists, dies at 92
An ANI report quoted IGP (Kashmir range) Vijay Kumar as saying that internet services had been suspended across the Valley as part of a series of precautionary curbs.
Referring to Geelani as “Kashmiri freedom fighter”, Pakistan PM Imran Khan announced, “The Pakistan flag will fly at half mast and we will observe a day of official mourning.”
His body will be taken to his ancestral village in Sopore for burial, family sources said.
Geelani’s death came days after speculation of an imminent ban on both factions of the Hurriyat had led to a signboard of the Tehreek-e-Hurriyat being hurriedly removed from the annexe of his family home. In a way, it seemed to mark the passing of the Hurriyat mantle to the other faction led by Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, who remained defiant amid murmurs of a ban.
Watch Syed Ali Shah Geelani, Hurriyat founder and hawk among separatists, dies at 92
