India charges family members of Kashmir resistance icon Syed Ali Geelani under anti-terror law

Family members and others were charged over anti-India slogans and wrapping Geelani’s body in the flag of Pakistan after he died under house arrest

Authorities have eased some restrictions imposed after his death, allowing private cars on roads and restoring mobile phone services

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Indian paramilitary soldiers patrol near a closed market in Srinagar, as restrictions were eased in some parts of Kashmir following the death senior separatist leader Syed Ali Geelani. Photo: EPA-EFE

Published: 5:50pm, 5 Sep 2021Updated: 7:39pm, 5 Sep 2021

Police in Indian-controlled Kashmir charged family members of late resistance leader Syed Ali Geelani under a harsh anti-terror law for raising anti-India slogans and wrapping his body in the Pakistani flag, officials said on Sunday.

Geelani, who died on Wednesday at age 91, was the emblem of Kashmir’s defiance against New Delhi and had been under house arrest for years.

His son, Naseem, said Indian authorities buried Geelani’s body in a local cemetery without any family members present after police snatched his body from the home. Police denied that and called it “baseless rumours” by “some vested interests”.

A video widely shared on social media purportedly showed Geelani’s relatives, mostly women, frantically trying to prevent armed police from forcing their way into the room where his body, wrapped in a Pakistani flag, was being kept. It showed women wailing and screaming as police took the body and locked his family and relatives inside the room.

Police said unspecified family members and some others were charged on Saturday under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act. They have not yet been taken into custody.

The anti-terror law was amended in 2019 to allow the government to designate an individual as a terrorist. Police can detain a person for six months without producing any evidence, and the accused can subsequently be imprisoned for up to seven years. Rights activists have called the law draconian.