KL NEWS NETWORK
SRINAGAR
A passport has been issued in favour of Hurriyat Conference (g) chairman Syed Ali Geelani one and half months after completing formalities for issuance of an Indian passport.
“The passport having short validity was dispatched to Geelani on Tuesday,” sources told KNS.
Regional Passport Officer Kashmir Firdous Iqbal told KNS that short validity passport has been sent to Geelani on his address through post.
Geelani, who earlier had passport in 2007, 2008 and 2011, had applied for the same in May this year. The issue of granting Geelani passport had sparked a political debate with ruling BJP opposing it saying that he should declare his nationality as Indian and apologise for his “anti-national” activities. However, its ally PDP had said it will ask the Union government to issue passport to Geelani on humanitarian grounds.
Last month Geelani had appeared at regional passport office to give his biometrics, necessary for the issuance of passport. He had mentioned ‘Indian’ in the nationality column at the passport office. But talking to reporters outside the passport office, he said, “I am not by birth Indian. It is a compulsion.”
