Syed Ali Shah Geelani, poster boy of separatist politics in Kashmir, passes away

The separatist leader had been suffering from a kidney disease for over two decades

ITDC INDIA EPRESS/ITDC NEWS R Hardline separatist leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani passed away at his residence at Hyderpora in Srinagar on Wednesday evening. Geelani, who was in his 90s, was battling poor health and kidney problems for a few years. The veteran separatist leader was born in 1929 at Sopore in Baramulla district. His passing is considered a big setback to separatists and militants who considered him as their ideologue. Geelani was known for his unflinching stand on Kashmir and wanted the Kashmir issue to be settled through a plebiscite.

After completing primary education in Baramulla, he briefly traveled to Oriental college in Pakistani Punjab for studies. He got associated with Jamaat-e-Islami of Kashmir and rose to become the organisation's top leader. He is the only Jamaat leader to have won assembly elections three times from Sopore in 1972, 1977 and in 1987, when the Muslim United Front, a coalition of separatist parties challenged the NC.

In 1993, when the Hurriyat Conference was formed, he was appointed as one of the seven members of the Hurriyat executive.

He was elected the Hurriyat chairman in 2000, but, in 2003, he broke camp with them after the Peoples Conference led by slain Abdul Gani Lone fielded proxy candidates in the 2002 assembly polls.

Geelani then floated his own party, Tehreek-e-Hurriyat, and with the support of other hardiners, formed another faction of Hurriyat Conference and was nominated lifetime chairman of the group.