Hardline separatist leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani passed away at his residence at Hyderpora in Srinagar on Wednesday evening. Geelani, who was in his 90s, was battling poor health and kidney problems for a few years. The veteran separatist leader was born in 1929 at Sopore in Baramulla district. His passing is considered a big setback to separatists and militants who considered him as their ideologue. Geelani was known for his unflinching stand on Kashmir, and wanted the Kashmir issue to be settled through a plebiscite.
After completing primary education in Baramulla, he briefly traveled to Oriental college in Pakistani Punjab for studies. He got associated with Jamaat-e-Islami of Kashmir and rose to become the organisation's top leader. He is the only Jamaat leader to have won assembly elections three times from Sopore in 1972, 1977 and in 1987, when the Muslim United Front, a coalition of separatist parties challenged the NC.
In 1993, when the Hurriyat Conference was formed, he was appointed as one of the seven members of the Hurriyat executive.
He was elected the Hurriyat chairman in 2000, but, in 2003, he broke camp with them after the Peoples Conference led by slain Abdul Gani Lone fielded proxy candidates in the 2002 assembly polls.
Geelani then floated his own party, Tehreek-e-Hurriyat, and with the support of other hardiners, formed another faction of Hurriyat Conference and was nominated lifetime chairman of the group.
He bitterly opposed the four-point formula floated by Pakistan’s military ruler General Parvez Musharraf to settle the Kashmir issue with India. After 2010, his elder son Nayeem Geelani returned from Pakistan, after the J&K government announced amnesty for Kashmiris who wanted to return to Kashmir from Pakistan. His second son is an associate professor in Sher-e-Kashmir Agriculture University in Kashmir.
His younger daughter is married to journalist Iftikhar Geelani. His elder daughter is married to Altaf Shah, alias Fantoosh, who has been arrested by NIA on terror funding charges. One of his daughters is also married outside Kashmir.
After the revocation of Article 370, he quit the faction of Hurriyat Conference that he was leading, citing failure of the group’s leaders to protest and mobilise people against the BJP’s move. Last year, he was awarded the highest civilian award of Pakistan, Nishan-e-Pakistan, for his service to the ‘Kashmir cause’. He could either be buried at his ancestral place in Sopore, or at Hyderpora. He will be remembered by his supporters for his uncompromising stand on Kashmir. His death has been widely consoled in Kashmir, including by mainstream leaders like Mehbooba Mufti. “Saddened by the news of Geelani sahab passing away. We may not have agreed on most things but I respect him for his steadfastness and standing by his beliefs. May Allah grant him jannah and condolences to his family,’’ tweeted Mufti.