The arrest came minutes before Geelani was scheduled to address a press conference regarding the ongoing protests against the alleged rape and murder of two young women in south Kashmir Shopian town on Saturday last.
Days after rebuffing outreach attempt by a group of MPs, hardline Hurriyat Conference Chairman Syed Ali Shah Geelani has said that talks with New Delhi are bound to fail till the "gravity and intensity" of the Kashmir issue is agreed upon.
Officials said both the factions of the Hurriyat are likely to be banned under Section 3(1) of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, or the UAPA, under which "if the Central Government is of opinion that any association is, or has become, an unlawful association, it may, by notification in the Official Gazette, declare such association to be unlawful."
'If, as happened in Baramulla during the 2024 Lok Sabha election, the youth in the Valley get triggered enough to jump into the wider fray, the end result would be difficult to predict, especially as the state's post-August 5, 2019 political format remains substantially fragmented and foggy,' points out Mohammad Sayeed Malik, the veteran commentator on Kashmir affairs.
Chairman of All Parties Hurriyat Conference Syed Ali Shah Geelani on Saturday condemned the hanging of Afzal Guru, saying the latter was not involved in the 2001 Parliament attack and was also not given a chance to defend himself in connection with this case. Geelani said Guru's hanging at the Tihar Jail this morning is a matter of sorrow and pain for the people of Jammu and Kashmir.
Sources said the accusation comes after Geelani nominated his close aide Ghulam Nabi Sofi as the leader of the Hurriyat in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir, replacing Abdullah Malik.
The Jammu and Kashmir high court has quashed the detention of the ailing chairman of Hurriyat Conference Syed Ali Shah Geelani under the Public Safety Act and has ordered his release.
Among them are Syed Ali Shah Geelani and Shabir Ahmed Shah.
Several senior separatist leaders have rejected outright their participation in any such meet at the moment.
Normal life in the Kashmir Valley was severely affected due to a strike call given by hardline Hurriyat Conference leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani against the continued arrests of youths.
Separatist outfits in Kashmir have reacted strongly to the arrest of Ghulam Nabi Fai, the executive director of the Kashmir American Council based in Washington, by the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Terming the arrest of Dr Fai as "unjustified", hard-line separatist leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani said, "The arrest has been made at the behest of the government of India. It is the result of a deep rooted conspiracy to weaken the ongoing movement in Kashmir."
Life across Kashmir was paralyzed on Monday by a shutdown called by the hardline separatist leader, Syed Ali Shah Geelani.
Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, chairman of the All Party Hurriyat Conference, has denied news reports that appeared in a leading national paper saying that he did not want travel documents to be issued to rival APHC group chairman Syed Ali Shah Geelani when an AHPC delegation visited Pakistan in 2005.
Owaisi said, 'Srinagar is a ghost town. Yeh kya kar diya hai (What have they done)? The people are very angry. It moved us to see that people were searching for milk. We were told that since last three months children were not going to school, medicines or proper food have been in short supply. They said they were being tormented.They can't bear the torture of their youth."
Tailing pro-Pakistani separatist leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani helped the Jammu and Kashmir police in nabbing dreaded Hizbul Mujahideen militant Abdul Aziz Dar alias General Moosa from Srinagar on Saturday.Dar, popularly known as General Moosa among separatists, had been on the run since last year, after he was found actively involved in anti-national agitations. He later allegedly indulged in liaising between Geelani and the Hizbul Mujahideen.
Kashmir on Friday witnessed widespread protests against a film deemed offensive to Islam.
Asiya Andrabi, the woman separatist leader who is on the Kashmir police's most wanted list, speaks to Rediff.com's Krishnakumar Padmanabhan in an exclusive interview.
The hard-line separatist leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani on Friday threatened agitation 'in case the annual Amarnath yatra is not restricted to the original 15 day schedule.'
Saturday's shutdown followed the Baramulla march call given by Geelani on Friday over the recent rape and murder of two women in south Kashmir's Shopian town. Authorities had imposed strict restrictions on Friday to foil the proposed separatist march.
Life in Kashmir was in Tuesday paralysed in view of a strike called by the hard-line separatist leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani against the conviction of six Kashmiris in the 1996 Lajpat Nagar bomb blast case in New Delhi.
Three persons were injured, two of them with rubber bullets in post Friday prayer protests in north Kashmir's Sopore town.
A delegation of members of Parliament and civil society members, who are on a "fact-finding" tour of Jammu and Kashmir, on Saturday asked the Centre to start a dialogue process for resolution of Kashmir issue and include separatist leaders like Syed Ali Shah Geelani in it.
A little-known Kashmiri separatist leader is spurring the stone-throwing protests against security forces in the Kashmir Valley with tactics such as YouTube recruitment videos and protest calendars published in the local media.
The hard-line faction of the Hurriyat Conference led by Syed Ali Shah Geelani has issued a curious 11-day protest schedule asking people of Kashmir to carry out normal activities from dusk to dawn on strike days. As per the schedule, only two days -- September 19 and 22 -- have been exempted from strikes and protests by the Geelani-led Hurriyat faction, which is spearheading the ongoing agitation in the valley.
Authorities imposed restrictions in certain areas of Srinagar on Saturday to scuttle a protest march called by separatists to coincide with Martyr's Day
The team of Pakistani journalists called on separatist leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani.
Geelani also criticised porous borders, self-governance and other formulas being put forth by the Pakistan President, General Parvez Musharraf, to meet India midway in resolving the Kashmir dispute.
Hardliner Hurriyat Conference leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani on Tuesday said that fulfilling election promises will be a test for the new government but added that the 'struggle for freedom' in the state will continue.Those who were elected have made promises to the people, Geelani said & added that while people voted for the mainstream politicians on the promises of better civic amenities and jobs, the separatists continue to represent the real sentiment.
The separatists termed the state government's appeal for help to restore normalcy as "childish and illogical".
In a related development, protests continued for the second day in north Kashmir's Kangan town, where protesters shutdown markets and blocked the highway leading to the Baltal base camp of the ongoing Amarnath Yatra.
A prominent separatist leader, Shabir Shah, was on Tuesday evening released after months of detention after the Jammu and Kashmir government revoked his detention under the stringent Public Safety Act. Shah was arrested in June this year during protests against the rape and murder of two women in south Kashmir's Shopian town.
The separatists left no stone unturned in making their differences obvious
The court's order came after the NIA submitted that they were not required for further interrogation.
In a confidential report, the Jammu and Kashmir police has accused moderate Hurriyat Conference leader Shabir Ahmed Shah of having links with Pakistan-based terror group Lashker-e-Tayiba. In the report to the state Home Department, the police have suggested some pro-active measures to curb the anti-national activities of separatist leaders and also slapped the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act against pro-Pakistan leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani.
A chargesheet was on Thursday filed by the Enforcement Directorate against Firdous Ahmad Shah, a member of Syed Ali Geelani's Hurriyat Conference, and another person for allegedly receiving money from Europe for use in terror financing.
Life in the Kashmir valley was affected on Monday by a protest shutdown against the killing of two youth in firing allegedly by the army on Sunday.
An amalgam of various religious organisations has called for a shutdown on Tuesday to protest against the anti-Islam film made by an American filmmaker. Hard-line separatist leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani and the pro-independence Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front have lent their support to the strike call.
Hurriyat Conference chairman Mirwaiz Umar Farooq was placed under house arrest on Saturday morning.
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