Pakistani flags waved at separatist leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani rally

Srinagar: Pakistani flags were reportedly waved at a rally of Kashmiri separatist leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani at Tral, a township 42-km south of Srinagar, on Friday.

Reports said that the octogenarian leader was addressing the rally after Friday prayers when a couple of youth waved the neighbouring country’s national flag. “They were not our Hurriyat Conference activists or members of any of its constituents. Anybody can come and join a public rally and indulge in such an act. We have nothing to do with it,” said spokesman of his faction of Hurriyat Conference, Ayaz Akbar.

Last month, Geelani’s close aide and hardline pro-Pakistan separatist leader Massarat Aalam Bhat was detained under State's stringent Public Safety Act (PSA) and shifted to a Jammu jail from here days after pro-Pakistan slogans were raised and that country's national flag was waved at a rally here that he was part of. Earlier, cases were registered against him under sections 13 Unlawful Activities Prevention Act, 120-B (criminal conspiracy), 147 (rioting), 341 (causing injury), 336 (attacking govt employee), 427 (mischief causing damage to the amount of Rs 50 or more) of RPC registered in Police Station Budgam near here.

Waving of Pakistani flags at the April 15 rally had evoked a nationwide outrage and Centre had asked the Jammu and Kashmir government to take "immediate and stringent" action against the 45-year-old Mr Aalam.

While addressing Friday’s rally, Geelani said the annual Amarnath Yatra should not exceed 30 days keeping in view ecological and environmental concerns. “Our Hindu brethren are welcome in Kashmir to join the yatra but it should be restricted to a minimum of 15 days and maximum one month and not beyond that,” he said.

Geelani further said that extending the pilgrimage to two months has had an adverse impact on the environment of Himalayas.

“For the same reasons if you can restrict and regularise the pilgrimage in Gangotri, where you have a limit of 150 pilgrims per day, why can’t it be done here (Amarnath)?” he asked.