In The Dead Of Night, Police Pick Up SAR Geelani For Sedition

NEW DELHI: Former Delhi University lecturer SAR Geelani was arrested on Tuesday on sedition and other charges in connection with an event in New Delhi in which anti-India slogans were raised, police said.

“Geelani was arrested around 3 AM at the Parliament Street police station under IPC sections 124A (sedition), 120B (criminal conspiracy) and 149 (unlawful assembly),” DCP (New Delhi) Jatin Narwal said.

Geelani was called to the police station on Monday night where he was detained and questioned for several hours, and later arrested. After his arrest, he was taken to RML Hospital for a medical examination, he said.

His arrest comes amid the raging row over the arrest of JNU students’ union president Kanhaiya Kumar over sedition charges in connection with an event on February 9 against the hanging of Parliament attack convict Afzal Guru.

At a Press Club event on February 10, in which Geelani was present on the dais along with three other speakers, a group allegedly had shouted slogans hailing Afzal Guru. Taking suo motu cognisance of the matter, the police registered a case against Geelani and other unnamed persons on February 12.

Police had claimed that Geelani was booked as he is presumed to be the “main organiser” of the event.

“Request for booking a hall at the Press Club was done through Geelani’s e-mail and the nature of the event was proposed to be a public meeting, which did not turn out to be so,” a senior official had said.

Following the registration of the FIR, the police questioned for two consecutive days DU professor Ali Javed, a Press Club member, under whose membership number the hall for the event was booked.

In 2001, Geelani was arrested by Delhi Police in connection with the Parliament attack case but acquitted for “need of evidence” by the Delhi High Court in October 2003, a decision upheld by the Supreme Court in August 2005, which at the same time had observed that the needle of suspicion pointed towards him.

 [[{“type”:”media”,”fid”:”2472″,”view_mode”:”wysiwyg”,”instance_fields”:”override”,”attributes”:{“height”:”100″,”width”:”100″}}]]‘Example of intolerant mindset’

JKLF chief Muhammad Yasin Malik Tuesday termed life threat to Hurriyat Patriarch Syed Ali Geelani by underworld Don Rajiv Pujari and arrest of Prof SAR Geelani as acts of intimidation for Kashmiris.

Malik who was arrested after being admitted in Florence hospital yesterday, Malik said, “arresting Prof Abdul Rehman Geelani in Delhi is a glaring example of intolerant mindset of Indian rulers and speaks volumes about the mental incapacity of authorities who are hell bent upon crushing every voice of dissent.”

He said that clamping down voices of dissent by force and slapping charges like sedition on political opponents’ has been an “old policy of oppressive regimes”.

“Prof Geelani has faced charges like these before and was even attacked by assailants in Delhi but came out successful through all those conspiracies and allegations,” he said.

“Prof Geelani is a well-known personality and his ideas and views are also well-known. Hence everyone knows the validity and authenticity of false and concocted charges slapped on him. Yasin Malik said that every Kashmiri stands behind professor Geelani in this hour of need,” Malik added urging international community and civil society to raise their voices for Professor Geelani and JNU students and teachers who are target of chauvinist’s forces and some sections of “biased Indian media”.

Condemning a section of Indian media that is spreading hatred against Kashmiris and have become self styled judges passing orders and comments freely, Malik said, “the biased approach of these media channels shows that these people have sold out their conscience and mind.”

Condemning death threats to octogenarian Geelani, Malik said, “this is a threat to all Kashmiris and we want to tell these goons and people who are actually behind them that Kashmiris who have sacrificed lakhs of person for freedom cannot be intimidated by these absurd threats.”

[[{“type”:”media”,”fid”:”2473″,”view_mode”:”wysiwyg”,”instance_fields”:”override”,”attributes”:{“height”:”100″,”width”:”100″}}]]Dictatorial attitude of GOI 

Terming the arrest of former professor of Delhi University (DU), Prof S A R Geelani at the hands of Delhi Police as uncalled and against the democratic norms, All Parties Hurriyat Conference (m) Chairperson, Mirwaiz Umar Farooq Tuesday condemned it.

Condemning the arrests of students after the symposium organised on the anniversary of Muhammad Afzal Guru at Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), Mirwaiz said, “the arrest of Guru, who served as a former professor of DU, and crackdown on the varsity, which is an intellectual hub in Delhi, was a dictatorial attitude of Government of India and against all democratic norms.”

Meanwhile, on the directions of the APHC-m Chairperson, a delegation of Hurriyat amalgam comprising of Hurriyat leader, Abdul Manan Bukhari, Mushtaq Ahmad Sofi and Farooq Ahmad Sodagar visited Srinagar’s SMHS Hospital to express solidarity with the under treatment victims inured in firing by Indian forces in south Kashmir’s Pulwama district.

Another Hurriyat delegation visited the families of the slain students, Danish Farooq and Shaista Hamid to pay rich tributes to them and expressed solidarity with the bereaved families on behalf of Mirwaiz and Hurriyat leadership.

 [[{“type”:”media”,”fid”:”2474″,”view_mode”:”wysiwyg”,”instance_fields”:”override”,”attributes”:{“height”:”100″,”width”:”100″}}]]‘Muzzling freedom of expression’

Hurriyat Conference chief Syed Ali Shah Geelani on Tuesday came out in support of former Delhi University professor SAR Geelani and JNU Students Union leader Kanhaiya Kumar, saying their arrest over alleged anti-India statements amounts to “muzzling the freedom of expression”.

The separatist leader said, “this detention has no constitutional and legal justification and it is an act of muzzling the freedom of expression”.

Demanding immediate release of Geelani and Kanhaiya, the Hurriyat leader said, “The secular and democratic claims of India are badly exposed day by day and this country is on its way to become an extremely intolerant Hindu Rashtra.” He also termed as “baseless and ridiculous” the comment by Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh linking the JNU event with Pakistan and Hafiz Sayeed.

Controversial Independent MLA Sheikh Abdul Rashid also jumped into the row, saying “I thank and salute the students and scholars of JNU for raising their voice against the hanging of (Parliament attack convict Afzal) Guru. Hats off to them.”

He added, “Unfortunately, BJP and Congress are trying to use it for political gains and are giving it a political colour. It is an ideological war and battle of ideas, not a battle between BJP and Congress.”

Rashid said “if the students of JNU are anti-national, then why is BJP trying to ally with the PDP” whose MLAs “had endorsed my stand on Guru on eve of seeking my support for Rajya Sabha and Legislative Council elections last year”.

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