Excelsior Correspondent
SRINAGAR, June 5: Hardline separatist leader, Syed Ali Shah Geelani, today applied for passport at Regional Passport Office Srinagar and declared himself as an Indian while completing formalities but later maintained that it is a compulsion.
Geelani, 88, submitted his biometric data including finger prints and iris scan at the passport office designated counter this morning. He mentioned Indian in nationality column of the passport form. He wants to visit his ailing daughter in Saudi Arabia.
Outside the passport office, the Hurriyat Conference leader told reporters: “I am not by birth Indian. We are under occupation and it is a compulsion”.
Later his party spokesman justified Geelani’s writing Indian in the nationality column saying that travelling on the Indian passport is a compulsion of every Kashmiri.
Geelani’s passport sparked a political debate last month with BJP opposed granting him passport and said that he should declare his nationality as Indian and apologise for his anti-national activities. However, PDP had favoured it.
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