India suspends Kashmiri hurriyat leader Syed Ali Geelani’s passport

DELHI (Web Desk) - Government on Tuesday suspended passport of Kashmiri Hurriyat leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani for a period of 4 weeks.

According to reports, Geelani was scheduled to visit New York, Focus news.com cited.

After much procrastination, the government, earlier in July, issued a passport to Geelani about a month after he declared himself an Indian out of “compulsion”.

On June 5, Geelani had appeared before passport authorities and declared himself as an Indian while completing formalities for travel documents but insisted that he did it out of “compulsion”.

“Geelani submitted his biometric data, finger prints and iris scan, at the designated counter,” an official of the Regional Passport Office.

The 88-year-old hardline Hurriyat leader wanted to visit his ailing daughter in Saudi Arabia.

He mentioned ‘Indian’ in the nationality column, the official said.

Talking to reporters outside the passport office, Geelani said, “I am not by birth Indian. It is a compulsion”.