The former chief minister of the erstwhile state of Jammu Kashmir and the PDP president Mehbooba Mufti took to Twitter on Sunday and criticized GOI’s action of booking the late Hurriyat leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani’s family under UAPA.
Mehbooba criticized the GOI for not allowing the family of the veteran leader to mourn and bid farewell to Syed Ali Shah Geelani as per their wishes.
“Having turned Kashmir into an open-air prison, now even the dead aren’t spared. A family isn’t allowed to mourn & bid a final farewell as per their wishes,” she wrote on Twitter.
“Booking Geelani Sahab’s family under UAPA shows GOI’s deep-rooted paranoia & ruthlessness. This is New India’s Naya Kashmir,” she added.
S.A.S Geelani passed away Wednesday evening at 10:00 PM, after which a communication Blackout was imposed over the valley. Reports emerged that the security personnel scuffled with the family and snatched the deceased’s body and buried him in the middle of the night in a nearby graveyard without letting the family perform the last rites.
Geelani had wished to be buried at Srinagar’s Mazar-e-Shohada, but the veteran leader was buried at a graveyard outside his house in Hyderpora, Srinagar.
While the communication curfew was partially lifted, on Saturday evening, the police also booked Geelani’s family under UAPA as some videos emerged where the late veteran leader’s body was wrapped in a Pakistani flag. The police also alleged that the family had raised “anti-national” slogans.