Zohra Siddiqui

Pakistan gave to Geelani Nishan-e-Pakistan, its highest civilian award in return for his role in making people in Kashmir raises pro-Pakistan slogans under the banner of ‘Islam’ and ‘Azaadi’. The question is: what did Geelani give to people of Kashmir, especially the youth many of whom gave up their bright future only to serve his pro-Pak project?

Syed Ali Shah Geelani, 92, who passed away on Wednesday, was the leader of Tehrik-e- Hurriyat, a breakaway faction of the APHC. Geelani’s body was allowed for burial in Indian soil despite the known fact that his heart pulsated for Pakistan. Geelani was a sworn enemy of peace and stability in the Valley and was known as ‘hartal uncle’ by students for his penchant for giving calls for bandh at the drop of the hat.

Geelani was buried peacefully in a quiet funeral at the cemetery near his residence in Srinagar’s Hyderpora at 4.30 am Thursday. His Namaz-e-Janaza (funeral prayer) was performed in a local mosque with proper rituals. Geelani’s son Nayeem said, “My father wished to be buried atEidgah in old Srinagar but due to some protocols and pressure from higher officials he was buried in the graveyard near to his residence, in Hyderpora.” Though Geelani’s family has not liked the choice of his place of burial - as nobody would want his father’s wish to remain unfulfilled - one wonders why Geelani did not wish to be buried in the country for which he worked all his life.

Geelani remained subservient to the political interests and ulterior motives of Pakistan. But when it came to his death, he chose to be buried in India. Here, one might recall the famous Urdu couplet of Bahadur Shah Zafar:

Do gaz zamīn bhī na milī kū-e-yaar meñ

(How unlucky! For a burial, even two yards of land were not to be had in the ‘land of friends’)

But ironically, Pakistan that used Geelani as a prop for its proxy war is trying to make most of even his death. The state of Pakistan observed a day of mourning over his death and also used the occasion to spread its vitriolic rhetoric against India. Prime minister Imran Khan offered condolences while some chanted slogan "Hum Pakistani Aur Pakistan Hamara."

What did Geelani give to the people in Kashmir, especially the young Muslims many of whom were swayed by him and worked to serve his pro-Pak projects under the banner of ‘Azaadi’?

Geelani’s life has the answer to this question. He was born in a well-to-do family in Sopore, Baramulla, in 1929. He went to Lahore for his higher studies where he was inspired by Maulana Maududi’s religious views and joined the right-wing Islamist movement, Jamaat e Islami. Back home in Kashmir, he represented the Hurriyat Conference and continued his faction after the Hurriyat split in 2003. Geelani not only exploited the gullible Kashmiri youths but also snatched away their great potential to grow. They had to give up their education and career in the name of ‘Kashmiri people’s political aspirations, while at the same time, Geelani’s children were being educated abroad.

After Geelani’s death, he has left both his faction and the common Kashmiri youth in the lurch. While his people are in disarray, the new generation in Kashmir is at a crossroads. They realize that throughout his life, all that Geelani did was to earn personal glory and material profits through the proxy ideological warfare that he unjustly called ‘Islamic.’  This has devastated scores of brilliant Kashmiri minds and wasted their intellectual energies which could have served to uphold a better cause. And what cause could be more fruitful than the nation-building!

However, we should realize that the death of Kashmir’s senior-most separatist leader is not an end of the Pak-supported separatism in J&K. Possibly new players will be introduced in the deadly game. What all the young, aspiring, and forward-looking Kashmiris ought to do is identify those parroting Pakistan’s narratives of ‘Azadi’.

Zohra Siddiqui is a regular contributor to various Islamic magazines and has completed her MA in Political science from Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi.