UNGA should ask India to allow Geelani's body to be buried where he desired: Akram

Pakistan Ambassador to the United Nations Munir Akram has said that the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) and other UN human rights bodies should ask India to allow the body of veteran Kashmiri leader Syed Ali Geelani to be buried in the Cemetery of Martyrs as he and his family had desired, Radio Pakistan reported on Wednesday.

Kashmiri leader Syed Ali Geelani passed away last week at the age of 92.

Speaking at a high-level forum, Akram also demanded that the funeral of Geelani must be held following Muslim customs and traditions. He stated that the curfew imposed in Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK) should be lifted to enable his family, relatives, and admirers to participate in his last rites.

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Pakistani envoy said the most recent example of Indian brutality is the treatment of mortal remains of Geelani when a heavy contingent of India's occupation forces entered his home, forcibly snatched his body, denied the last rites of a Muslim funeral, and buried him in a non-descript place rather than the Cemetery of Martyrs.

Akram said Geelani's family members were charged for draping his body in the Pakistani flag. He said this is the cowardly and criminal conduct of the Indian government's mindset.

Geelani, an uncompromising campaigner against Indian rule, died Wednesday at the age of 92 following a long illness, and thousands of police personnel were deployed soon after to try and prevent unrest in the region.

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Geelani was one of the most outspoken critics of the Indian Occupation of Jammu and Kashmir, having spent several years in jail or under house arrest.

Pakistan's Foreign Office in its statement noted that authorities in IIOJK had repeatedly resorted to indiscriminate use of force against Kashmiris, stressing that India "must refrain from any missteps that might further jeopardise regional peace".

Indian envoy was also reminded of Pakistan's stance that New Dehli should lift the "illegal military siege" in IIOJK, stop measures aimed at changing the territory's demography, withdraw its occupation troops, and cease all its human rights violations, the FO added.