By Raqib Hameed Naik, TwoCircles.net,
Srinagar: Hurriyat hawk and senior separatist leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani has said that getting an Indian passport for travelling abroad was a “compulsion” and that he is “not an Indian by birth”.
The Hurriyat hawk and senior separatist leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani was released on Friday morning from his house where he was detained for several weeks. Soon after his release, Geelani drove to the Regional Passport Office which is located on the Boulevard Road in Srinagar to give his biometric data for issuance of passport.
After stepping out of the Passport Seva Kendra, Srinagar, Geelani said that “I am not an Indian by birth. It’s a compulsion that we have to travel with an Indian passport.”
It is pertinent to mention here that, the 88 year Old hardliner, Geelani had applied for passport to see his ailing daughter Farhat Jabeen Geelani, in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia; but had left the column on citizenship blank.
Geelani’s application for passport had created a political storm, and had sparked a divide between BJP and the Peoples Democratic Party, the ruling coalition government in the state. The relations between the two parties took a turn for the worse as the BJP has openly objected to the granting of travel documents to Geelani, while PDP was in favour of granting travel documents.
The Ministry of External Affairs had then said that the application cannot be processed in its present form since it was “incomplete” and will be processed on merit.
Minister of State in Prime Minister Office (PMO), Dr Jitendra Singh went to extent demanding apology from Geelani for his “anti-national” activities and acknowledgement that he is an Indian.
Geelani’s passport was seized by authorities in 1981 but an intervention by former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in 2007, facilitated the release of his travel documents on medical grounds for travelling to the United States. At that time, Geelani was issued the passport on Tatkal basis that was valid for just one year.