US indecisive on giving visa to Geelani

NEW DELHI: The US embassy here seems to have washed its hands off from granting ailing Kashmir hawk Syed Ali Shah Geelani a visa for medical treatment. After an hour-long “grilling” in the routine visa related interview on Friday, the family has been told that the decision would be taken by the US State Department and most probably would be conveyed on Monday.

Mr Geelani, Kashmir’s inflexible separatist is suffering from cancer in his only kidney and doctors here have advised him to go for laser therapy in Cleveland, the only hospital in the world where precision laser therapy is available. “The embassy officials have accepted the documents, interviewed him and we expect a positive decision by Monday,” family sources told ET.

Informed sources said the delay in issuing a visa might be because Mr Geelani reportedly falls in the list of “unwanted personalities”. In fact, family sources said that, in the Friday interview US officials quizzed Mr Geelani about his views on terrorism, Islam, jehad and other subjects that of late have been forming the fundamentals of the US foreign policy for West Asia and other parts of the Muslim world. Mr Geelani is a known critic of US foreign policy.

Interestingly, the family is not in favour of accepting any offer for treatment from any hospital in the world. The most attractive offer had come from none other than Imran Khan, who runs Showkat Khanam Cancer Hospital in Lahore.

Family sources said Khan promised Geelani that though his hospital has every facility, he would get the entire machinery and all the experts from Cleveland hospital to Lahore if he agrees to the 35-minutes flight to Pakistan. Geelani has remained non-committal on this offer.

Geelani is 78 and his passport was impounded in 1981. Though his passport was given to him last month after the prime minister personally intervened, he may not be able to use it if the US denies permission.

He was admitted to Apollo hospital last month where the cancer was detected in his only kidney. A chronic heart patient, he has undergone open heart surgery earlier and also has a pace-maker, one of his kidneys was removed when cancer was detected while in jail in 2002.