Syed Ali Shah Geelani (29
September 1929 – 1 September 2021)
1st death anniversary of the Hurriyat leader who fought for occupied Jammu and
Kashmir's freedom. All Kashmiris and Pakistanis honor his sacrifices and struggle to voice against Indian oppression
The name of Kashmir and its freedom leader Syed
Ali Shah Geelani are not separate words. He was a prominent
freedom fighter who passed away on September 1, 2021, in Jammu & Kashmir.
He was a popular leader in Pakistan too, as he spoke against the inhuman and
unjust Indian occupation in Kashmir and stood firm on his belief in the
two-nation theory even when he was not living in Pakistan. He recognized the
fact Kashmiri having a Muslim majority population cannot live in
Illegally Indian Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK) as its difficult for a
Muslim to live in India as it is for a fish to live in a desert.
Geelani has spent his entire life working
to liberate Kashmir from India, and his politics have remained surprisingly
constant during that time. He was a symbol of the Kashmir war. He gave a
lot of his services and sacrifices to the Kashmir cause. He desired that
Kashmir be annexed by Pakistan. His life began with his people's fight for
free land. As a result of his opposition to Indian control in the invaded
region, he spent several years in various Indian prisons. He was imprisoned and
tortured to physical and mental abuse, yet he never submitted to the occupiers'
troops until he died.
Geelani started his career as a teacher at
Sopore in North Kashmir after studying Islamic education in Lahore. He then
entered politics and served J&K's Legislative Assembly three times. Maulana
Mohammad Sayyid Masoodi, a pro-independence Kashmiri politician who was
murdered by rebels in December 1990 at the age of 87, served as his initial
tutor. But in the early 1950s, he came upon the works of Jamaat-i-Islami founder
Maulana Abul Ala Maududi which changed the path of his future life.
He began advocating for the territory's union with Pakistan in the early 1960s.
As a member of the Kashmir legislature, he actively promoted his separatist
views. Geelani had been a source of contention for India. After 1962, the
senior politician was imprisoned for over ten years and was under house arrest.
Geelani is the author of several novels and
was a prolific writer. During his time in jail, he penned more than 20 works,
including his autobiography Wular kinaray (on the bank of Wular). His Urdu
written works offer a profound window to his soul.
Geelani played
a crucial role in the creation of the Muslim United Front (MUF)
in 1987, ahead of provincial elections, when all Muslim parties united under a
single platform to oppose pro-India groups like the National Conference. Due to
suspected rigging, just four candidates from the platform, including Geelani,
were able to obtain seats. The Indian government imprisoned him and three other
winners without any valid reason.
Geelani has been a
member of Jamaat-i-Islami, which was outlawed by the Hindu nationalist
government in 2019. After the region abolished Article 370, which provided
Kashmir special status, on August 5, 2019, Geelani was confined to his
home due to his failing health. Many Muslim Kashmiris support the objective of
unifying the land, either under Pakistani control or as a separate country.
Geelani was a part of the All
Parties Hurriyat Conference; a conglomerate of various Kashmiri politicals
which worked to spearhead a movement for the region’s right to
self-determination. The Hurriyat Conference (Geelani) is
made up of more than 24 constituent parties, some of which have only a few
members.Later, Geelani resigned as chairman of the All
Parties Hurriyat Conference (APHC), which he had led since its inception in
1993 as a political arm of the anti-India movement. In 2003, he was elected as
the organization's life chairman.
As India started their work to demographically
change the Kashmir population by inviting Indians to buy land and open
businesses in the illegally occupied valley. He took his clear unchanging
stance and said, “Kashmir was (as per the terms of partition) a natural part of
Pakistan. And it is a natural part of Pakistan. At the time of the partition in
1947, we had 85 percent Muslim population in the whole of Jammu &
Kashmir.”He also said, “Not only do we share boundaries with Pakistan but we
also relate to Pakistan so far as our geographical, cultural, and religious
affiliations are concerned. Now, why am I also open to the idea of independent
Kashmir? As a leader, I can’t reject the voice of the people.”
Since, the armed revolt against Indian
sovereignty began in 1989, tens of thousands of civilians, rebels, and
government soldiers have been murdered in the struggle. It was his tenacity in
the face of hardship that gained him a special place in the hearts of many
Kashmiris. Among those who followed his example of leadership are Mohammed Ashraf
Sahrai, Miyaan Abdul Qayoom and Aasiya Indrabi, all of whom have been in and
out of prisons.
As a strong advocate of
IIOJ&K, Syed Ali Geelani provoked the fury of the Indian government with
his stance on the Kashmir conflict. His fervent support of Pakistan's
accession to Jammu and Kashmir echoed through the whole region. His whole
freedom effort was focused on obtaining Pakistan's admission to and separation
from India. He claimed that Kashmiris could only get Azadi by enlisting in
Pakistan. To the Kashmiri youth, he exclaimed, "Hum Pakistani Hain, Pakistan Hamara hai". In his
opinion, India cannot be trusted, unless it declares Kashmir a
disputed territory, demilitarises the area, and frees political prisoners to
allow for genuine engagement.
Syed Ali Shah Geelani, a three-time MLA and
outspoken supporter of Pakistan, dominated separatist politics for nearly three
decades and was called "hartal man" for issuing repeated bandh calls
as part of a plot to undermine law and order in the occupied Kashmir valley.
On 14 August 2020, Pakistani President Arif
Alvi conferred Nishan-e-Pakistan,
Pakistan’s highest civil award on Geelani to recognize his decades-long
struggle for Kashmiris’ right to self-determination.
Geelani's death comes
at a time when many Kashmiris believe the area has grown even more violent
because the federal government abolished the territory's autonomy. He was a
peace activist that believed the freedom movement should work
"to educate the people" and activate them in "a systematized but
peaceful struggle" for the implementation of "the UN
resolutions" on Kashmir, which had called for a referendum to choose
Indian or Pakistani sovereignty in the late 1940s and 1950s. Geelani's
health had suffered greatly as a result of his 11-year house detention, and his
condition deteriorate.
Following Geenlani's
death, thousands of police and paramilitary personnel took control of the roads
to keep people from reaching his home. Dr. Naeem Geelani thinks that Indian
officials have been rehearsing and planning the entire operation for months in
preparation for Geelani's death from (at least) August 2019. Syed Ali Shah
Geelani died at the age of 91 in Srinagar on September 1, 2021. Only a few
hundred people, including his relatives and neighbors, were allowed to attend
his funeral in a graveyard near his house. Pakistan also mourned the
veteran leader's death. Kashmir’s recent years of civilian protests, the slogan
“Na Jhukne Wala Geelani! Na Bikne Wala, Geelani!” were the war cries on the
streets.
His funeral was also very symbolic as it showed the fear of India from Kashmiri leaders in Indian-occupied Kashmir. His funeral served as a powerful allegory for the Kashmiri movement and the fear associated with it. The people of Kashmir wanted him to be buried in the martyrs' cemetery but government forces took his body which his family had draped with the flag of Pakistan. Syed Ali Geelani will always be recognized for his fearlessness, straightforwardness, and his debating talents.
He relentlessly battled
for Kashmiris' identity and independence as a Pro-Pakistani. His name will
always appear whenever the history of nonviolent independence movements is
written. This battle for Kashmir's freedom would continue even after the
martyrdom of Syed Ali Geelani, and one day it will be successful.
India has attempted to
enslave the Kashmiri people and suppress their justifiable fight while
repeatedly violating their every right. As a result of the sacrifices made by
tenacious Kashmiris like Syed Ali Geelani, Burhan Wani, and Riyaz Naikoo, the
liberation movement in Kashmir has endured decades of repression only gotten
stronger. They have reignited a brand-new intifada in Kashmir that will never
go away in IIOJK. Repressive measures such as forced arrests, arbitrary
detentions, and executions by Indian brute force would not quench the fiery
spirits of Kashmiris. The unavoidable destiny of Kashmiris is to liberate
themselves from India, their oppressor, and they are determined to accomplish
it.
The All Parties
Hurriyat Conference (APHC) has called on the people of IIOJK to march to
Hyderpora in Srinagar on September 1, 2022, to pay respect to Syed Ali Gilani,
the icon of the Kashmir resistance struggle, on his first martyrdom
anniversary.
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