New Delhi: The Union Government today suspended passport of Kashmiri separatist leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani for four weeks to prevent him to travel to New York for an event.
Geelani was invited by Organization of Islamic Countries (OIC) to participate in a meeting scheduled to be held in New York next week. The annual meeting of Foreign Ministers of member states of OIC and Kashmir Contact Group is beginning on September 27 and Geelani had accepted the invitation.
He was likely to have spoken against India if given a platform at the event.
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.
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Earlier, his application for issuing a passport had been rejected in May after he refused to give his biometric details. As the authorities refused to issue him the travel document unless he completed the necessary formality, Geelani later relented and visited the Regional Passport Office to submit his biometric details.
Geelani's spokesman had a few days ago acknowledged his travel plans to the US but said the Hurriyat chairman had been invited by the OIC many times in the past but could not go due to non-availability of travel document.
Asia Andrabi, chief of radical women's outfit Dukhtaran-e-Millat, has also been invited by the OIC to attend the meeting. Another separatist leader Mirwaiz Umar Farooq is also among the invitees.
