By
IOL South Asia correspondent
New
Delhi, June 11 (IslamOnline) - Former Hurriyat Conference chairman
Syed Ali Shah Geelani said his arrest is “politically motivated.”
“My
arrest is politically motivated. We stand for peace in Jammu and
Kashmir and want a permanent resolution of the issue,” Geelani told
Aaj Tak news channel after his arrest.
Geelani,
one of the top separatist Kashmiri leaders, was arrested Sunday, June
9, and sent to a far-off jail.
He
reiterated his stand for a tripartite dialogue between India, Pakistan
and “real representative of people of Kashmir” to resolve the
issue. He expressed ignorance about the charges under which he was
arrested.
Speaking
to reporters on arrival in Ranchi, Geelani said he was fighting for
peace in the Kashmir Valley. “Although I am seen as a terrorist with
an anti-Indian stance the fact remains that I had been fighting for
restoration of peace in the Kashmir valley,” he told reporters.
After
being arrested under the anti-terrorism law (POTA) in the Kashmir
valley, Geelani was brought to Ranchi in the eastern state of
Jharkhand and lodged in the Birsa Munda Central Jail. Security
measures have been beefed up in and around the jail.
To
a query, Geelani said he was not clear about the intentions of the
Indian government and added that anything about his arrest would be
better clarified by the union home ministry.
Geelani
was sent to Ranchi jail as a part of the Center’s scheme to disperse
the “separatist” arrested in Kashmir. In the current swoop the
Center has arrested two top separatist leaders. Besides Geelani, JKLF
chief Yasin Malik is also in jail.
The
second rung of the Hurriyat leadership, arrested over the last few
months, is already scattered in various jails around India. They
include people like GM Bhat.
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| Security
check in Srinagar
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Pakistan
has strongly criticized India for arresting Syed Ali Shah Geelani. In
a statement, a Pakistan Foreign Office spokesperson said that
Geelani’s arrest reflects Indian government’s utter disregard for
the fundamental rights of the Kashmiris.
India
should come to the negotiating table with Pakistan and the Kashmir
leadership to resolve the Kashmir issue in accordance with UN
resolutions, the spokesman said.
According
to reports from Srinagar, a senior cardiologist from Sher-e-Kashmir
Institute of Medical Sciences (SKIMS) accompanied Geelani as he is
suffering from a chronic heart ailment, police sources said. Besides
Geelani and his son-in-law Altaf Ahmad Fantoosh, three others have
also been arrested.
These
include Mohammad Rehman Khan, Abdul Karim Bhat in Srinagar while Abdul
Rashid Saraf, brother of Mohammad Ashraf Saraf, chief of Hurriyet
Conference Pakistan chapter, was picked up from Baramulla town.
Geelani’s
second son-in-law Iftikhar Geelani, whose house in Delhi was searched
Sunday, has been imprisoned under the Official Secrets Act. Iftikhar
Geelani is a well-known journalist who is the Delhi correspondent of
Kashmir Times (Jammu) and The Nation (Lahore). Allegedly his computer
had sensitive information. The house of Geelani’s third son-in-law,
Ghulam Hassan, was also raided in Dooru in Sopore.
The
police has launched a hunt to arrest women’s separatist
organization, Dukhtaran-e-Milat chief, Asiya Andrabi who has gone
underground with her husband, a former militant leader who has spent
many years behind bars. Police claimed, she too is involved in illegal
money transactions to fund militancy.
Jammu
and Kashmir police Monday slapped Official Secrets Act against Syed
Ali Shah Geelani for allegedly passing on “classified documents”
to Pakistan. Inspector General of Police (Kashmir range) K Rajendra
Kumar claimed that a “five-page document” recovered from his
residence revealed deployment of Indian army and paramilitary forces
in Jammu and Kashmir.
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Some
Hurriyat Conference leaders in a seminar
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Meanwhile,
Indian daily newspaper, the Times of India's political editor, Manoj
Joshi said in an article Monday, June 10, that the arrest of Syed Ali
Shah Geelani is another step in the direction of conducting “free
and fair” polls in the Valley later this year. Joshi said that in
the coming days, the security forces are expected to step up their
offensive against the militants in the state.
Joshi
added that “having got Pakistan to at least commit itself to ending
support to cross-border terrorism, the government is now working
towards addressing the internal component of the Jammu and Kashmir
problem.”
This
would involve neutralizing the local opponents of Indian schemes in
Kashmir. With the foreign pressure off there will be no urgency to
accommodate local aspirations. In a way it will be back to pre-1988
when the Center ruled Kashmir with an iron hand using local satraps.
