New Delhi: Tehreek-e-Hurriyat founder Syed Ali Shah Geelani died in Srinagar on Wednesday aged 91. A top separatist leader and former Hurriyat Conference (G) Chairman, Geelani developed serious complications on Wednesday afternoon and breathed his last at his Srinagar residence in the evening.
Many political leaders in Pakistan offered condolences over his death. Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan announced that Pakistan's flag will fly at half-mast and a day of official mourning will be observed across the country. He said that Geelani suffered "incarceration and torture" but remained resolute.
Taking to his official Twitter account, the Pakistan PM said on Wednesday, "Deeply saddened to learn of the passing of Kashmiri freedom fighter Syed Ali Geelani who struggled all his life for his people & their right to self-determination."
"We in Pakistan salute his courageous struggle & remember his words: 'Hum Pakistani hain aur Pakistan Humara hai'," he wrote in another tweet.
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Pakistan's Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi also expressed condolences and made controversial remarks against India. "Pakistan mourns the loss of Syed Ali Shah Geelani, torch bearer of the Kashmir freedom movement. Shah Sb fought for the rights of Kashmiris till the very end, under house arrest of Indian occupation. May he rest in peace and may his dream of freedom come true," Qureshi tweeted.
Responding to Qureshi's tweet, senior Congress leader Abhishek Manu Singhvi lashed out at him, saying, "you indeed lost a proxy of your intelligence agency working in India to radicalise innocent Kashmiris in the name of Jihad. Your nation & all your proxies shall go down in history for killing innocent Kashmiris."
The 91-year-old Geelani was the founder of Tehreek-e-Hurriyat. He had served as the chairman of All Parties Hurriyat Conference, a conglomerate of pro-separatist parties in Jammu and Kashmir. Geelani quit politics in June last year. Born on 29 September 1929, he was previously a member of Jamaat-e-Islami Kashmir but later founded Tehreek-e-Hurriyat. He long rejected any dialogue with India over the future of the J&K region.