Govt suspends Geelani’s passport Ahead of US trip

Separatist leader Syed Ali Geelani’s passport was today suspended for four weeks, scuttling his planned trip to the United States later this month.

A senior official of the Regional Passport Office, Srinagar, Firdous Iqbal, said Geelani’s passport had been suspended for four weeks, but did not give any reason for it.

The suspension comes three days after Geelani announced that he would travel to New York to participate in the meeting of foreign ministers of Muslim countries and the Kashmir contact group from September 27 to October 1.

Geelani, who heads the hardline faction of the Hurriyat Conference, had approached the US embassy for travel visa. He had been denied visa to the US in 2007 when he wanted to get treated there.

The separatist leader had applied for passport in June this year and received his travel documents a month later amid a controversy. At that time, Geelani had said he wanted to visit his ailing daughter in Saudi Arabia and had described mentioning Indian as his nationality as a compulsion.