With the demise of Kashmiri separatist leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani, several netizens took to Twitter to share the gory past of the Hurriyat leader.
Similarly, journalist and Kashmiri Pandit Aditya Raj Kaul shared a video of him asking pointed questions to the separatist leader in 2011 at a press conference which led to threats and intimidation.
Sharing the video Kaul Tweeted, “I met Syed Ali Shah Geelani twice in life. Most interestingly when India Today invited me to speak at their 2011 Conclave in New Delhi where I exposed his links with masters across the border in Pakistan and how he supported terrorism. The crowd booed when he tried to respond.”
I met Syed Ali Shah Geelani twice in life. Most interestingly when India Today invited me to speak at their 2011 Conclave in New Delhi where I exposed his links with masters across the border in Pakistan and how he supported terrorism. The crowd booed when he tried to respond.👇 pic.twitter.com/oVMv91vrhY
— Aditya Raj Kaul (@AdityaRajKaul) September 1, 2021
Kaul who stood unabashed in front of the Hurriyat leader regarded him as a mirror image of once dreaded terrorist Osama Bin Laden for talking about democracy. Sharing an anecdote of the fateful exodus of Kashmiri Pandits from the valley in the 1990s, Kaul narrated, “I was just nine months old when my mother had to wrap me in a cloth and flee so that people like Geelani do not kill me and hundred other children like me.”
“There were hundreds of children killed and hundreds of women raped,” continued Kaul to suggest that he was talking as a Kashmiri to Geelani and not as a Hindu Pandit.
“What does he (Geelani) have to say about Kashmiri Pandits, Ladakis and Jammu people who have been suffering since all these years,” asked Kaul garnering applause for his unfrightened demeanor.
Kaul then asserted that he does not expect any answer from Geelani knowing his ideology and leaning. He then asked why did the Hurriyat leader get even his own people killed only because they spoke in favor of India.
“You are only faithful to your masters across the border,” said Kaul vociferously accusing accused Geelani of establishing a gun culture in the valley which set the base for the exodus.
To this Geelani giving a rather predictable but shameful answer said that the Hurriyat had no role to play in the exodus of Kashmiri pandits and that it was all a ploy of then-governor Jagmohan Malhotra.
The audience broke into laughter at Geelani’s response and also booed him for it.
Geelani who died at the age of 92 on Wednesday in Srinagar, spent his entire lifetime peddling Pakistan’s agenda in Jammu and Kashmir.
Geelani was a key hardliner separatist leader in Kashmir, who had played a major role in the increase in separatist activists in the region. The only ones to mourn his death were the likes of Mehbooba Mufti.
