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| Finally, Geelani declares himself Indian | | | Early Times Report
Srinagar, June 5: The debate over whether hardline separatist leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani is Indian or not came to an end today after he filled the nationality column of passport application as Indian citizen.
Geelani completed formalities to apply for an Indian passport after the police released him from house arrest.
Officials in the passport office said that Geelani submitted his biometric data which includes signing passport form at many places, taking finger prints and iris scan etc and automatically includes filling all the required columns of the application including mentioning nationality of a person.
Geelani while talking to reporters outside the passport office said, "I am not Indian by birth, it is a compulsion that we (Kashmiris) have to travel with an Indian passport."
An aide of Geelani who was accompanying the latter to the passport office said that writing Indian in the nationality column of passport and travelling on the Indian passport "is a compulsion for every Kashmiri."
Geelani had applied for a passport for himself and for his wife last month to travel to Saudi Arabia to visit their ailing daughter. However, BJP opposed granting Geelani an Indian passport after citing his anti-national activities as the reason and asked Geelani to apologize first.
Geelani had last month completed formalities through online mode for the passport and he was given an appointment with passport officer today at 10:15 am, and according to details his other two family members have already completed biometric formalities for the passport.
The PDP had supported issuing passport to Geelani on humanitarian grounds. Chief Minister, Mufti Mohammad Syed also supported granting Geelani a passport.
Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh had last month said that the Centre would consider Geelani's application for passport only after he (Geelani) completes formalities.
Singh, however, indicated that the Centre was not averse to granting passport to Geelani "if it comes to us (Home Ministry) after due formalities and then we will think over it."
In the past, most of the separatist leaders including Yasin Malik and Mirwaiz Umar Farooq have got got Indian passports. However, thousands of common Kashmiris are still denied passport only because in past their relatives were associated with militancy. Thousands of people who want to perform Haj are also denied passport, besides those whose relatives crossed over to Pakistan for arms training during the 90's and later settled there. |
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