Denial of last rites to Geelani’s family against humanity: Mehbooba Mufti

Former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Mehbooba Mufti said that the government should have allowed Geelani’s family to perform the last rites

Former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Mehbooba Mufti on Monday said that the current dispensation was afraid of the body of senior separatist leader Syed Ali Geelani and said that the government could not ask people to like or dislike a leader on gunpoint.

Former chief minister Mehbooba Mufti on Sunday had said that Kashmir had been turned into an open air prison where even the dead aren’t spared. She said Geelani’s family should not have been booked. (HT File)

The Jammu and Kashmir Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) president said that the government should have allowed Geelani’s family to perform the last rites. “Instead, Geelani’s family members, including women, were beaten up and cases were slapped against them,” she said, adding, “India is respected across the world for its democracy and in a democracy everybody has right to put forth their perspective.”

“You cannot ask people to Iike or dislike a leader on gunpoint,” she Mehbooba. “Without any call, people voluntarily closed their shops and business establishments. Even those who did not like Geelani’s ideology were hurt by the government’s treatment of Geelani’s body,” Mufti said.

Geelani, 91, passed away on Wednesday night and his family alleged that his body was snatched by police forcibly and buried at Hyderpora graveyard without their consent.