Hardline separatist leader and chairman of Hurriyat Conference Syed Ali Shah Geelani, spearheading the recent unrest in Kashmir, was operated upon successfully for replacement of heart pace-maker in New Delhi's Escorts Hospital on Tuesday.
This was Geelani's fifth successful surgery in the last 12 years. Seventy-nine-year-old Geelani's kidney as well as gall bladder has been removed in two separate surgeries. He underwent a surgery during his incarceration in Ranchi jail in 2002.
In 2007, half of his lone kidney was removed after it developed malignancy. Though he was granted permission by the Central government to visit the US for specialised treatment, the US Embassy refused him visa "for supporting militancy" in Kashmir.
In the recent weeks, the hardline separatist leader developed complicacy as his pace-maker, implanted on 1997, was nearing expiry. He is also suffering from bronchitis.
| I love the irony: a man who would take Kashmir straight back to the seventh century, with all the wonderous medical care that century was known for, has had cancer surgery, gall bladder surgery, a pacemaker, and cardiac surgery in the land of his mortal enemy, the Hindoos. I'm just betting that it was a Hindu surgeon and surgical team each time, and if it was a Muslim surgeon, said surgeon has made his peace to live in a multi-cultural society. |
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