SRINAGAR, MARCH 8: After days of uncertainty, ailing separatist hawk Syed Ali Shah Geelani today received a passport to travel abroad for treatment.

Geelani, 77, has been diagnosed with malignancy in his only kidney and needs immediate surgery.

The travel document, valid for a year, was handed over to his son Naseem Geelani at the Passport Office here.

“It is an open passport, not country-specific,” said Passport Officer S Ramallu. “We had to work day and night to make it ready at the earliest possible date”.

The spokesman for Geelani’s faction of Hurriyat, Ayaz Akber said Geelani planned to visit the US for treatment. “Naseem Sahib will go to Delhi and apply for a US visa,” Akber said.

The passport was issued two days after the Prime Minister asked government agencies to extend all possible assistance to Geelani to have treatment abroad.

On Tuesday, the Jammu and Kashmir High Court directed the government to consider issuing travel documents to Geelani. Justice B A Kirmani passed the order on a petition filed by Geelani’s daughter Zahida Altaf, seeking instructions to issue a fresh passport to Geelani as the matter involved “not only his right to liberty and free movement but also the right to life as guaranteed under the constitution.”

Geelani’s doctors have reportedly advised him to take treatment in Britain or the United States. His left kidney was removed four years ago.

Known for his hawkish stand on Kashmir, Geelani broke away from Kashmir’s separatist conglomerate Hurriyat in 2003, in protest against the support of some leaders to the peace talks with New Delhi. Ever since, he has rejected any negotiated settlement of Kashmir, which detracts from the United Nations Resolutions pledging plebiscite in Kashmir.