India government locks down Kashmir after Geelani burial

Kashmiri protesters pelt stones at security forces during a clash in Srinagar yesterday after authorities imposed a lockdown across the region following the death of Syed Ali Shah Geelani.

Indian Kashmir veteran separatist politician Syed Ali Shah Geelani was laid to rest early yesterday in Srinagar, as authorities blanketed the region with troops and clamped down on communications to prevent protests. Geelani, 91, was buried in a graveyard near his home before dawn with only a few hundred people, including his family and neighbours, allowed to attend the funeral, a government official said. “There was heavy security at the funeral, including plain clothes policemen,” the official said. Geelani, who died on Wednesday, had been unwell for some time, his family said. Among the most prominent political leaders in Kashmir, Geelani for years led an umbrella alliance of secessionists known as the Hurriyat Conference. But the group split in 2003, when hardliners led by Geelani, who advocated Kashmir’s merger with Pakistan, walked out after moderates decided to hold talks with New Delhi. Geelani, who had spent much of the last five decades in jail or under house arrest, had wanted to be buried at the Martyrs Cemetery in Srinagar along with other Kashmiri separatists. But authorities rejected the request, the police source said. “At about 3am, police barged inside our home and took our father’s body,” one of his sons, Naseem Geelani, said. “We insisted that we would perform his funeral after morning prayers and bury him according to his wish at the Martyrs Cemetery.” Police “snatched my father’s body and did not allow anyone from our family to participate in the burial”, the son added. “We heard later that police undertook washing rituals for my father’s body and had him buried.” The police source acknowledged that security forces “took control of the arrangements”. The official said the family were given choices but did not respond. He said two sons were present but did not name them. Mehbooba Mufti, a former Kashmir chief minister, said on Twitter: “We may not have agreed on most things but I respect him for his steadfastness and standing by his beliefs.” Around Geelani’s home and elsewhere in Srinagar, armed troops lined main roads and manned checkpoints, a witness said, as authorities sought to prevent protests in the wake of his passing. The city’s main business area remained deserted, with most shops closed, and the movement of vehicles restricted, the witness said. Authorities also cut Internet connections and mobile networks in the Kashmir valley since late on Wednesday. The clamp down echoes restrictions that were imposed in August 2019 when Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi split Jammu and Kashmir  into two federally-administered territories. The shock move was opposed within Kashmir, including by the likes of Geelani who quit his hard line Hurriyat Conference faction, saying that it had failed to counter New Delhi’s efforts to tighten its grip on the region.