Indian security forces maintain an armed guard around the grave of the Hurriyat leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani On Tuesday, amid mounting public anger over police footage of his funeral, which his family said he had been barred from attending.
Indian authorities have beefed up security in the disputed Himalayan region following the death of Kashmiri separatist leader and former All Parties Hurriyat Conference (APHC) chief Geelani last week at the age of 92.
His family says the separatist icon’s body was forcibly taken away and buried at midnight and that his sons were kept away from funerals and burials.
Police have denied the allegations, but faced fresh outrage after they posted a video of Geelani’s body being washed, covered and buried on Twitter on Monday.
Fearing protests, his grave in Srinagar, the main city of Indian-occupied Jammu and Kashmir, is under armed security and visitors are not allowed.
Mufti Nasirul Islam, the most senior Islamic jurist in occupied Kashmir, described the police action as “un-Islamic”.
They told AFP The body of a dead person should be respected, even if he is a “death-sentenced criminal”.
“I think his family is hurt and people [occupied] Kashmir is hurt. The police should apologize for doing this.
In a video widely shared on social media, police released clips of Geelani’s body draped in Pakistan’s flag after his family clashed with the police.
Security forces then issued a statement saying that Geelani’s sons initially agreed to a speedy funeral, but changed their mind “probably under pressure from Pakistan” and “started resorting to anti-national activities”.
It said that “after persuasion”, Geelani’s relatives brought the body to the cemetery and “crewed it with full honours”. It did not say which relatives were present.
Indian authorities cut mobile signals and internet in the occupied area following Geelani’s death – services that have started coming back online since Sunday.
Geelani was once the head of the Hurriyat Conference, an influential coalition of Kashmir separatist groups.
The conference announced on Tuesday that Masarat Alam Bhat, a resistance leader who has been in an Indian prison since 2010, has been named as the new head of the coalition.