SRINAGAR, Aug 4: Noted lawyer and Member of Parliament from right-wing Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) Ram Jethmalani has offered to try quashing the house arrest of senior separatist leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani.
Jethmalani met Geelani at his Hyderpora residence in Srinagar and offered to challenge his house arrest in the Supreme Court.
“Jethmalani expressed surprise over the continuous house arrest of Geelani without any written order and said he will challenge this,” Hurriyat spokesperson Ayaz Akbar said.
The lawyer heads the independent Kashmir Comittee, a group which has been trying to open channels of communication with separatist leaders and to make them ready for finding a solution to the conflict through dialogue.
However, the meeting was apolitical, Akbar said.
“They mostly discussed the problems being faced by Kashmiri prisoners,” he said.
Jethmalani is in the valley to visit a scene from where one of his clients and another Hurriyat leader Ghulam Mohammad Bhat was arrested in 2011 to be later lodged in Delhi’s Tihar jail.
“From the airport, the noted lawyer straightway drove to Geelani’s residence where the two leaders discussed in detail the plight of Kashmiri prisoners and the status of their cases,” Akbar said.
Geelani thanked Jethmalani for showing interest in the cases of Kashmiri prisoners and providing legal assistance to them, he said.
The separatist leader highlighted various issues, including his house arrest during the meeting with Jethmalani who assured him that he would challenge the restrictions on his movement in the Supreme Court.
