Cops walk out on Geelani
In a bizarre act, policemen deployed at a Srinagar hospital to watch over Syed Ali Shah Geelani have walked out on the separatist leader who was earlier informed by a senior police officer that he was a free man now.
The octogenarian separatist leader was arrested from frontier district of Kupwara on June 20 and subsequently detained under Jammu and Kashmir’s stringent Public Safety Act (PSA) and charged with fomenting trouble in the state. He was shifted to Sher-i Kashmir Institute of Medical Sciences (SKIMS) here from the Srinagar central prison last month after he complained chest pain and blood pressure problem.
On Friday evening, he was visited by the jail officials and next morning by sub-district police officer (SDOP) Hazratbal, Masood-uz-Zamaan, to offer releasing him on one-month parole. But Mr Geelani refused to sign the relevant documents saying he was not interested in being freed. He also told the officials that if the government was sincere in setting him free they should first release other political prisoners arrested during the past few weeks and also those hundreds of youth picked up on charge of stone-pelting and similar alleged offences.
As the officials failed to convince him, Mr Geelani was soon informed that he was a freeman now. On Monday, the hospital authorities discharged him but the separatist leader refused to leave till Tuesday and, meanwhile, told reporters at his hospital bed that he would be leading a peaceful procession to the Idgah “martyrs” cemetery on that day to offer funeral prayers in absentia for nearly forty people killed in the weeks of turmoil.
He called the people of the Valley to reach Srinagar on Tuesday to join saying “We will march peacefully from the SKIMS to Mazaar-e-Shohda (martyrs’ graveyard) at Idgah, where we will offer funeral prayers in Absentia for the people who lost their lives in police brutalities.” When his attention was drawn towards curfew being in force in Srinagar and elsewhere, the separatist leader said, “Putting restrictions on the people will serve no purpose.”
Comments
If India claims to be a
Reader
03 Aug 2010 - 22:15
If India claims to be a democratic country why doesnt it show any sincerety towards the choice of common kashmiri people. There is no economic problem in kashmir for which people are on the roads for the last almost two months. The genesis of the problem is that Kasmiris want plebicite. they should be given their right for self-determination. This is their basic political right.
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