Authorities cancel Geelani’s passport

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

Hurriyat spokesman Ayaz Akbar said, “Geelani received an e-mail [about suspension] today evening”.

“Yes, we have suspended his passport for four weeks”, confirmed Regional Passport Officer, Srinagar, Firdous Iqbal. “Geelani has applied for visa to travel to New York to attend Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) foreign ministers meet there and the U.S. embassy has given a green signal”.

“This is an attack on the freedom of expression”. “Government of India doesn ” t want our leadership to aware world community about India ” s suppressive tactics in Kashmir”, he said.

“There is no democracy in India”.

Geelani had accepted the invite from the OIC to participate in its meeting in New York.

Separatists leader Geelani said the procedure for receiving a visa was on and papers had been presented at the U.S. government office.

While the Mirwaiz and Mr Andrabi are unlikely to attend the meeting as their passports have been withheld by the authorities even though the former had also announced he would try to obtain the travel documents to visit New York.

The 85-year-old pro-Pakistan leader had been issued a short-term passport for nine months in July this year to facilitate his visit to Jeddah to meet his ailing daughter Fareeda.

While the separatist leader declared himself as an Indian in the passport application form, he later insisted that he did it out of compulsion. “It is a compulsion”, he said. Home ministry sources said Geelani was planning to raise the Kashmir issue and “alleged persecution of Muslims in the Valley” at the conference.