Srinagar, June 5: Separatist leader Syed Ali Geelani on Friday completed the biometric examination as per norms but his passport shall be issued only after necessary verification from the concerned department, sources said.
Divulging information, sources revealed that the Huriyat (G) chairman Syed Ali Geelani completed the biometric formalities and he is not required to visit the passport office further. “His passport shall be issued now only after the necessary verification will be completed,” one of the officials while pleading anonymity told TKS.
He said that as per norms, Geelani fulfilled all the requirements of the biometrics.
Pertinently, Geelani Friday said that getting passport for travelling abroad was a compulsion and that he was “not an Indian by birth”. “I am not an Indian by birth. It’s a compulsion that we have to travel with an Indian passport,” Geelani said after coming out from the regional passport office.
Earlier, reports had claimed that Huriyat (G) chairman had left the nationality column blank in his online application for the passport.
Geelani, according to Hurriyat Conference, applied for the passport to see his ailing daughter in Saudi Arabia.
Geelani’s application for a passport had created a political furor which saw coalition partners, BJP and PDP, bitterly divided.
While the state unit of the BJP demanded an ‘apology’ from the leader for his ‘anti-national’ activities, PDP present Mehbooba Mufti had said that it was a ‘humanitarian issue’ and that the Hurriyat leader should be issued a passport for meeting his ailing daughter.