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| | Concerns that hardline Kashmiri leader, Syed Ali Shah Geelani, had more than medical motives behind wanting to visit the US were a key reason that Washington decided to instruct the US consulate in Mumbai to reject his visa application earlier this week. Geelani’s support for extremist violence in Kashmir always made it unlikely that the State Department would look favourably at granting him a visa. However, the US government has the discretion to allow anyone to visit the US if it is felt there is sufficiently strong humanitarian grounds. While there was no doubt Geelani was suffering from kidney cancer, US officials quickly ascertained that the laser treatment he was seeking was commonly available outside the US – including in India. In fact, Geelani had applied to have medical treatment in a nondescript community hospital in Ohio. The US embassy in New Delhi had also worried Geelani might use the visit to attend a conference at Georgetown University in the US capital, advocating international mediation in the Kashmir dispute. Among the invited speakers at the conference, held last Wednesday, was Muhammad Yasin Malik, head of the Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front. Once Washington had concluded New Delhi would have no problems if such a hardliner was refused a visa, the State Department concluded there was no strong reason to overturn its post-9/11 norm to not grant visas to people with a long record of sympathy to terrorist tactics. |
