One of Indian Kashmir's best-known separatist leaders, Sayed Ali Geelani, is battling an acute respiratory infection and has been flown to New Delhi for hospital treatment, a party spokesman said Thursday. Geelani, 84, has for years suffered from multiple health ailments including a heart condition that requires a pacemaker and serious kidney problems.
The leader, who describes India's rule of held Kashmir as a "military occupation" and who has been a vehement campaigner for the territory's right to self-determination, fell seriously ill March 5. On Wednesday, the ailing separatist refused to travel to Delhi on a state government aircraft offered to him by authorities and instead flew by a regular commercial flight the next day, aides said.
"We believed the government wanted to gain political mileage out of Geelani's illness (by offering him travel on a state aircraft)," his spokesman, Ayaz Akbar, told AFP in occupied Srinagar. Aides said Geelani was expected to receive treatment in a hospital in the New Delhi satellite city of Gurgaon, which boasts many high-tech medical treatment centres.
Geelani has spent most of the last three years under house arrest, amid Indian accusations of inciting violence. He draws large crowds whenever he is allowed to move around. Whenever Geelani is allowed to address a gathering, it leads to a "serious law-and-order problem", the government said in a 2011 statement. Hundreds of people visited Geelani's home daily after news of illness spread and colleagues asked supporters to "pray for his early recovery". He was seen off by scores of supporters shouting "Geelani zindabad (Long live Geelani) and "We want freedom" as he left his occupied Srinagar home for the airport.
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