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Said Ali Shah Gilani, Kashmir’s top separatist, died on Wednesday night. He is 92 years old.
When news of his death spread in the disputed Himalayas, the authorities immediately blocked the Internet and deployed hundreds of soldiers in the main city of Srinagar to prevent large-scale funeral parades or protests against Indian rule.
His family Tell Al Jazeera On Thursday, the police “stolen his body and bury it forcibly” in a quiet funeral before dawn.
New Delhi has reason to be concerned: Gilani has been a symbol of resistance by the Kashmiri people for decades, and they either want to establish an independent state on the territory of the Himalayas or merge with neighboring Pakistan.
Until last June, Geelani led the Hurriyat Conference of All Political Parties (APHC), an umbrella group of various Kashmir political and religious groups established in 1993 to promote the movement of the right to self-determination in the region.
The Himalayas of Kashmir have long been a hotspot between India and Pakistan. These two nuclear powers have full sovereignty over the region but manage different parts.
Since 1989, Kashmiri rebels have been fighting against Indian rule. Most Kashmiris support the rebel’s goal of merging the region with Muslim-majority Pakistan or establishing an independent state.
New Delhi accuses Pakistan of funding Kashmir fighters. Islamabad denies this accusation. Tens of thousands of civilians, insurgents, and government soldiers were killed in the conflict.
On either side of Geelani are separatist leaders Yasin Malik (right) and Mirwaiz Umar Farooq (left) while protesting the killing of a teenage boy in Narbar near Srinagar [File: Mukhtar Khan/AP]Geelani was born in 1929 in a poor family in Zoorimunz village, Bandipola District, northern Indian-controlled Kashmir.
He studied at a local school, and then under the guidance of Muhammad Abdullah’s close friend Mullah Saeed Masoodi (Mullah Saeed Masoodi), he studied in the current Pakistani city of Lahore.
Referred to as “Sher-e-Kashmir” (Lion of Kashmir), Abdullah was the founder leader of the All Jammu and Kashmir Muslim Conference and the first elected prime minister of Indian-administered Kashmir after its accession to India in 1947.
‘Societal loss’
In the 1950s, Geelani joined Jamaat-e-Islami, the largest political and religious organization in the region, which had close ideological ties with the Muslim Brotherhood movement in Egypt. The organization was banned by the Indian Hindu nationalist government in 2019.
Gilani has been a thorn in the eye of India since he started campaigning for the merger of the Muslim-majority territory with Pakistan-administered Kashmir in the early 1960s.
Geelani was sentenced to jail for nearly 10 years in 1962 and was often confined at home since then. He participated in and won several regional elections, but lost once in the Indian parliamentary elections.
“I heard him speak at a rally when I was in the opposition party. He is a young man. He has a good grasp of Urdu, and his style and knowledge are very rich,” said Saif Wu, a senior congressional politician. De Dinsoz told Al Jazeera.
“He has a deep understanding of the Quran. He used to talk about social, political, and religious issues… He was well educated.”
“Although I have many differences with ideology, this is a loss to society.”
After Gilani’s death, the Indian army patrolled near his residence in Srinagar [Danish Ismail/Reuters]Thirty years of armed rebellion against Indian rule has witnessed Geelani’s transformation from a three-term legislator in his home constituency in Sopore to the “spiritual leader” of the Hezbollah Mujahedin, an armed group that wants the region to merge with Pakistan.
Among the many songs and slogans sung by the rebel groups, Gilani is the central figure.
“He faces” India and Pakistan at the same time
In a famous move in 2005, Gilani rejected the then Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf’s four-point solution to the Kashmir dispute.
Musharraf once proposed to jointly control the Himalayas between India and Pakistan and increase trade and travel opportunities between the areas controlled by the two countries.
Academic and political analyst Dr. Sheikh Shaukat Hussein told Al Jazeera in February last year: “When he felt that General Pavez Musharraf was inclined to compromise, he bluntly opposed him, and he continued Continue to resist Indian rule without hesitation.”
Compared with distinguished leaders such as Sheikh Abdullah, such a move made Gilani popular among the masses of Indian-controlled Kashmir, and according to experts, its legacy has been damaged.
Hussein said that when Abdullah “give up”, Gilani “supported the (Kashmir) cause for a long time.”
“Unlike Sheikh Abdullah, despite making great sacrifices, Sheikh Abdullah made the first mistake in 1947 and chose the wrong track,” he said.
Hussein added: “When almost every actor in Kashmir lost hope and gave up supporting the cause of freedom, I felt that he was trying to perpetuate the flame of Kashmir’s aspirations.”
“Usually, Kashmir politicians have to stand on the side of the Indian or Pakistani government. But he faces both situations at the same time, which adds to his status.”
Geelani speaks to the media before his arrest in Srinagar [File: Altaf Qadri/AP]After retiring from the APHC hardliners, Geelani transferred control to his deputy Muhammad Ashraf Sehrai, who died in police custody during his detention under the Public Security Act (PSA) earlier this year. The disputed law, under which a person can be detained for one year without trial.
‘He did his job’
Since India began its suppression after Pulwama attacked the Indian army in February 2019, most separatist groups in the Indian-controlled Kashmir region, such as Hurriyat, have been in chaos.
The suicide attacks were blamed on Pakistan’s Kashmir rebel armed groups, leading to mass arrests of leaders in the region, including religious groups Jamaat-e-Islami and the Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF).
These groups were banned by New Delhi for “harbouring a separatist ideology.”
After Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government cancelled partial autonomy in the region in August 2019, most of the region’s politicians who support independence and even support India were arrested and registered under strict laws.
For more than ten years, although Gilani suffered from various diseases, he was still detained and confined at home. He was only allowed to go to the hospital.
A police car is permanently stationed outside his residence in the main city of Srinagar.
His continued detention and relentless contempt of Indian rule regarded him as winning a large following in India’s only Muslim-majority region. He used to post work stoppages and protest calendars during the mass uprisings in 2008, 2010, and 2016.
However, after the special status of the region was cancelled two years ago, Gilani maintained an unusual silence following large-scale suppression and restrictions.
For the first time in recent decades, Gilani did not make any statement and did not officially shut down the phone. His close partner attributed the silence to his poor health.
After a severe chest infection in 2014, Gilani’s health deteriorated, but he continued to firmly control his political group.
Geelani’s family remembered his unwavering commitment to his career. He refused to hold any direct talks with New Delhi until it “accepts Kashmir as a disputed territory”. Since independence in 1947, all Indian governments have insisted that the country has sovereignty over the entire Kashmir.
“His persistence and his loyal position are the only things that allow us to move on. I don’t think he chooses life for himself, he cares about people. He always does what he thinks is right,” one of his asked not to be named. Family members told Al Jazeera.
Siddiq Wahid, a Kashmir political analyst, stated that Gilani became a “symbol of resistance” in the last decades of his life.
“One of his gifts to us was to successfully pierce the dishonest shell covering up the Indian government’s policies in Jammu and Kashmir. He did his job.”
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