By Afshain Afzal

Top Kashmiri-Pakistan leader, Syed Ali Shah Geelani died at Srinagar after a prolonged illness at the age of 92. He was the main voice who did not bow before Indian coercive forces and demanded right of self determination for the Kashmiri State-Citizens; free and impartial plebiscite as per the United Nations Security Council Resolutions on Jammu and Kashmir dispute. His funeral is scheduled on 3 September as per orthodox Muslim referred as Deobandi Hanfi traditions. As he belonged to Jamaat-e-Isami so large number of members of Jamaat attended his funeral while in Pakistan Pakistan's Jamaat-e-Islami party, urged people to offer funeral prayers in absentia for Geelani on Thursday. 

During his education in Lahore before partition he was linked with Quaid-e-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah for struggle for partition and Independence, Since the establishment of Jamaat-e-Islami in Jammu and Kashmir in 1946, Syed Ali Geelani remained deeply connected to Maulana Saad-uddin, the first chief of Jamaat-e-Islami, Jammu and Kashmir. Later on returning to Jammu and Kashmir after attaining degree from Lahore he joined public school as a teacher. He resigned from his government job in 1959 to devote himself full time to the party's activities and soon rose to become the district chief of Kupwara and Baramulla. In 1992, when All Parties Hurriyat Conference (APHC) was founded as a platform of at least 30 pro-independence parties to pursue Kashmir's fight for right of self, Syed Ali Shah Geelani resented Jamaat-e-Islami. He resigned from the chairperson as many Kashmiri leaders had sold their conscience.

Syed Ali Geelani was deeply connected with Pakistan but in 2006, when ex General President Pervez offered India his Four-Point Formula and partition of Jammu and Kashmir State between India n and Pakistan, he not only opposed it but voiced against the nefarious design of the then Pakistani leadership running the Government. On 5 August 2019, the Indian government revoked Article 370 and 35 A and other related provisions from its Constitution, scrapping the country's only Muslim-majority state with its autonomy, Syed Ali Geelani exposed India;s plans to bring demographic changes in Kashmir to defeat the Islamic ideology in Jammu and Kashmir. He was also highly critical about Shia Central Waqf Board chairperson, Syed Waseem Rizvi blasphemous attempt in which he approached the Supreme Court to seek removal of 26 verses of the Quran on the ground that these are “teaching hatred, violence and terrorism” and that “These verses were added to the Quran, by the first three Caliphs, to aid the expansion of Islam by war”.

Few month back reacting over conference at New Delhi on 24 June 2021, in which all the prominent pro-India compromised Kashmiri leadership participated, Syed Ali Geelani made quite clear that holding talks with "so-called politicians" and giving the impression that the situation in Indian Occupied Kashmir is returning to normalcy, is wrong, "The Indian government has always betrayed the people of Kashmir. So there is no other option less than right to self-determination.” New Delhi should be clear that Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh will never be accepted as separate union territories.” Syed Ali Geelani’s enemies were not only the Indian military and intelligence but also the Kashmiris who sold their conscience to the Indian for pity favors. Leaders like Sheikh Omar, Mehbooba Mufti and other distance themselves from Syed Ali Geelani due to fear of coercive tactics and extra judicial killing by the Indian security forces.

Where the death of such a great leader has strengthened the Kashmiri struggle for the right of self determination, Indian agencies are trying to tarnish the image of Syed Ali Geelani (late). In a recent attempt Jammu and Kashmir State Police chief Dilbagh Singh had in an interview to NDTV, “A letter was initiated by Syed Ali Geelani which was an eye-opener and he admitted his path was wrong and he used Kashmir for personal gains." Sons and daughters of Syed Ali Geelani including Naeem and Naseem have vowed to carry forward the great struggle by the father and other Kashmiris. Indian occupying authorities have imposed restrictions, including suspension of internet services, deployment of additional military and para-military forces as well as restriction on vehicular movement but despite this hundred and thousands of Kashmiris announced attending the funeral. The Kashmiris not only in India occupied Jammu and Kashmir but throughout the world have wowed to join hands to fulfill the dreams of Syed Ali Geelani to attain right of self-determination on the basis of UNSC Resolutions.