US visa refusal: Geelani's Hurriyat says unfortunate

Srinagar, Mar 28 (UNI) The breakaway Hurriyat Conference today termed as ''unfortunate'' the US administration's decision to refuse visa to its ailing chairman Syed Ali Shah Geelani.

''It is very unfortunate. We were hopeful of a positive decision on the part of the US administration. It was not a political visit.

Mr Geelani wanted to go there for medical treatment,'' breakaway Hurriyat Conference spokesman Ayaz Akbar said here.

He said it was ''unfortunate'' to deny a visa to a person on the grounds of his political views. ''The refusal is a serious violation of one's basic human rights,'' Mr Akbar added.

The ailing firebrand leader was at present convalescing at the Tata Memorial Cancer Hospital in Mumbai after doctors performed surgery on his damaged kidney on Monday.

Mr Geelani had applied for US visa to undergo treatment for kidney malignancy.

While denying visa to Mr Geelani, the US Embassy in New Delhi said he had ''consistently failed'' to renounce violence as a means of achieving political goals in Jammu and Kashmir.

UNI