Police in Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir opened a case on Saturday against relations of the late resistance leader Syed Ali Geelani under a harsh anti-terror law for allegedly raising anti-India slogans and wrapping his body within the Pakistan flag.
Ali Geelani, who died on Wednesday at age 92, was the symbol of Kashmiris’ defiance against New Delhi and had been under confinement for years.
His son, Naseem, said Indian authorities buried the body during a local cemetery with no relations present after police snatched his body from the house. Police denied that and called it “baseless rumors by some vested interests”.
A video widely shared on social media purportedly showed Ali Geelani’s relatives, mostly women, frantically trying to stop armed police from forcing their way into the space where his body, wrapped during a Pakistan flag, was being kept. It showed women wailing and screaming as police took the body and locked his family and relatives inside the space.
Police said that they had registered a case against unspecified relations and a few others and commenced probing the case under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act. they need not yet been taken into custody. Critics say such police cases are sometimes delivered to silence or intimidate opposing voices.
The anti-terror law was amended in 2019 to permit the govt to designate a private as a terrorist. Police can detain an individual for 6 months without producing any evidence and therefore the accused can subsequently be imprisoned for up to seven years. Rights activists have called the law draconian.
Geelani’s son Naseem said that a policeman visited the family on Saturday and informed them a case had been registered. Naseem didn’t provide further details about the meeting but said there have been scuffles because the police removed his father’s body.
“Amid the chaos, we didn’t really know what was happening. We were mourning,” said Naseem.
Syed Ali Geelani spearheaded Kashmir’s movement for proper self-determination and was a staunch proponent of merging the India-occupied region with Pakistan. for several in Kashmir and beyond, he was an everlasting icon of defiance against India.
On Sunday, authorities eased some restrictions that had been imposed since Geelani’s death, allowing private vehicles on roads and vendors to work in some parts of Srinagar.
However, most shops and businesses stayed closed as government forces patrolled roads and streets within the city. Mobile phones were restored late on Friday, but mobile internet and restrictions on the assembly of individuals continued in many parts of the held valley.
Paramilitary soldiers remained stationed outside the graveyard where Geelani was buried.
Ruwa Shah, Geelani’s granddaughter, wrote on Twitter they were horrified by what followed after he gave up the ghost . “His home was a jail for over a decade and now his graveyard is a jail too,” she said.
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