Geelani out of danger

Geelani out of danger

Wednesday, February 9, 2005 (New Delhi):

After a successful operation, Prof SAR Geelani, acquitted for any involvement in the attack on Parliament, is out of danger and recovering in the capital's AIIMS hospital.

Geelani had been shot outside his lawyer Nandita Haksar's house in South Delhi yesterday.

"We heard gunshots and then a very strong bang on our door. It was Geelani. He walked in and said that he had been shot and we took him to the hospital," said Haksar.

Operation successful

Immediately after the attack, Geelani was rushed to the All India Institute of Medical Sciences in the capital where doctors operated upon him to remove bullets in his body.

Several of Geelani's supporters turned up at the hospital, many clearly angry over the attack.

As Geelani recovers, the police have their job cut out for them to try and find out just who tried to kill him.

Parliament attack

Geelani was a teacher of Arabic at the Zakir Hussain College since 1998 but just two days after the Parliament attack in December 2001, he was arrested by the Delhi police.

He was charged overnight as one of the main conspirators of the terrorist attack.

The basis of the police charge were intercepts of a call from his mobile phone to his stepbrother in Srinagar.

A year later, Geelani was found guilty by a POTA court and awarded the death sentence.

Lack of evidence

However, there were many who rallied around him in support.

Writer and activist Arundhati Roy joined a group of lawyers and human rights activists called All India Defence Committee for SAR Geelani that demanded his release and pointed out that the police hardly had any evidence against him.

It was a year later in 2003 that the Delhi High Court found the so-called evidence against him to be inadmissible in court and acquitted him.

After being released from jail, Geelani felt that his campaign against human rights violations in Kashmir could have been the reason why he was victimised.

Geelani had been suspended from his college after his arrest but soon after his acquittal, he was soon reinstated.

The Delhi police have filed an appeal against the High Court ruling in the Supreme Court.

from ndtv.com