Geelani to lead 'Save Kashmir' rally in Pakistan

Srinagar, Jan 19: Firebrand separatist leader and breakaway Hurriyat conference chairman Syed Ali Shah Geelani is likely to visit Pakistan in February to lead a ''Save Kashmir'' rally there.

According to a breakaway Hurriyat spokesman, Mr Geelani has been invited by the Jama'at-e-Islami of Pakistan to visit the neighbouring country.

Mr Geelani is scheduled to lead a ''Save Kashmir'' rally there on February 5, he added.

The spokesman expressed the hope that the Centre would this time issue travel documents to Mr Geelani without any hurdle.

If permitted, Mr Geelani would travel to Pakistan for the first time. It would also come close on the heels of the visit of a three-member moderate Hurriyat delegation, led by chairman Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, to Islamabad for talks with President Pervez Musharraf, Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz and others on the Kashmir issue.

''I want to visit Pakistan, but India has withheld my travel documents since 1981. If others are going to the US, the UK, Ireland and Gulf nations, why am I being barred from taking my viewpoint beyond the boundaries of Jammu and Kashmir?'' asked Mr Geelani at a news conference in Jammu yesterday.

The firebrand leader also informed that he had been invited to a conference in Brussels and to the 'Kashmir Solidarity Day' celebrations in Pakistan on February 5.

Mr Geelani is reportedly unhappy with the Pakistani establishment for coming closer to the moderate Hurriyat Conference.

To a question about his strained relations with Pakistan, he said the government in Islamabad wanted to sideline him, but the people of that country supported his stand on Jammu and Kashmir.

UNI