Kashmir’s leader’s family investigated

POLICE in Indian-controlled Kashmir have opened a case against family members of late resistance leader Syed Ali Geelani under a harsh anti-terror law, for allegedly raising anti-India slogans and wrapping his body in the Pakistani flag, officials said yesterday.

Mr Geelani, who died on Wednesday at the age of 91, was the emblem of Kashmir’s defiance against New Delhi and had been under house arrest for years.

His son, Naseem, said Indian authorities buried Mr Geelani in a local cemetery without any family members present after police snatched his body from the home.

Police denied the claims, calling them “baseless rumours” by “some vested interests”.

A video widely shared on social media purportedly showed Mr Geelani’s relatives, mostly women, frantically trying to prevent armed police from forcing their way into the room where his body, wrapped in a Pakistani flag, was being kept.

It showed women wailing and screaming as police took the body and locked his family and relatives inside the room. Police said they registered a case against unspecified family members and some other and began investigating under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act. They have not yet been taken into custody.

Meanwhile, yesterday, authorities eased some restrictions that had been imposed since Mr Geelani’s death, allowing some private vehicles on roads.