SRINAGAR, Jammu and Kashmir

Newly-elected lawmakers of the Jammu and Kashmir Legislative Assembly on Tuesday remembered late pro-freedom leader Syed Ali Geelani.

Geelani was elected member of the legislature in the disputed Kashmir region three times in 1972, 1977, and in 1987, when he resigned.

The current legislature was elected in October, first since India degraded and divided the region into two federally-ruled territories.

Abdul Rahim Rather, speaker of the assembly, led the session making obituary references to lawmakers who have passed on since the last legislative session in February 2018.

Geelani, who died on Sept. 1, 2021 at the age of 91, led the pro-freedom grouping of All Parties Hurriyat Conference.

Of the total 90 lawmakers, two named Geelani in their speeches.

Ruling National Conference party legislator Bashir Ahmad Veeri paid tributes to Geelani and 56 other deceased lawmakers.

“There is another respected personality who has been a member of this house. We might have ideological differences with him but he also represented an aspiration. I pay tributes to Syed Ali Geelani as well,” he said.

Rafiq Ahmad Naik, another legislator from the opposition People’s Democratic Party said: “We are here to pay tributes to great personalities who have been members of this house or held high (constitutional) posts. … among them is Syed Ali Geelani also. Our political ideologies are different but he has been a member of this house. He was a good orator."

After alleging mass rigging in 1987 legislative elections, which led to loss of Muslim United Front (MUF) political platform, Geelani resigned from his seat.

Later in 1989, with the onset of anti-India armed insurgency in the region, the late veteran statesman called for boycott of elections until his death three years ago.

In his obituary reference, Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah specifically praised former Indian Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee.

“If we had stayed the course Vajpayee had charted for Jammu and Kashmir, we might not be facing today’s challenges,” said Omar, whose National Conference party has majority in the legislature.

Elections in September and October this year were first since 2014 and also first since New Delhi scrapped the special status granted to Indian-administered Kashmir under Articles 370 and 35A of the Constitution on Aug. 5, 2019.

*Riyaz ul Khaliq contributed to this story from Istanbul