[22][3] Syed Ali Geelani was born in 1929 in a village called Zurimanz, in the Bandipora tehsil, in the Baramulla district of North Kashmir.

Geelani had claimed that the Jamaat-e-Islami wanted to use it as an opportunity to spread its ideology, keep the Kashmir issue in prominence and protect basic and fundamental rights of the people.

[citation needed] Geelani contested as an independent candidate but lost to Syed Ahmed Aga,[25] with the Jamaat alleging ballot rigging.

He was however defeated in the 1983 election due to the sympathy wave generated for the Jammu & Kashmir National Conference by the death of Sheikh Abdullah.

[26] Geelani also contested the 1977 Indian general election as an independent candidate due to the banning of Jamaat in 1975, but lost to Abdul Ahad Vakil.

[25][27] In the 1987 legislative assembly election, Jamaat-e-Islami candidates including Geelani participated under a coalition of parties called the Muslim United Front (MUF).

[30][31] He was one of the founding members of the All Parties Hurriyat Conference (APHC), an alliance of Kashmiri social and political organisations who supported a referendum for Kashmir, in 1993 and was the initial choice for the position of its chairman.

[34] He also criticised the Jammu and Kashmir People's Conference for fielding proxy candidates in the 2002 assembly election and sought its removal, threatening to launch his own party.

[62][63] Geelani received the invitation to participate in the annual meeting of the foreign ministers of member states of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) and the Kashmir Contact Group to be held in New York from 27 September 2015.

[64] After the killing of Burhan Muzaffar Wani and the unrest that followed it, to restore normalcy in Kashmir, Geelani sent a letter to United Nations listing six confidence-building measures.

[65][66][67] In March 2018, Geelani announced his resignation as chairman of the Tehreek-e-Hurriyat citing ill health, being replaced with Ashraf Sehrai.

[3] On 29 November 2010, Geelani, along with writer Arundhati Roy, activist Varavara Rao and three others,[68] was charged under "sections 124A (sedition), 153A (promoting enmity between classes), 153B (imputations, assertions prejudicial to national integration), 504 (insult intended to provoke breach of peace) and 505 (false statement, rumour circulated with intent to cause mutiny or offence against public peace...) to be read with Section 13 of the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act of 1967".

The charges, which carried a maximum sentence of life imprisonment, were the result of a self-titled seminar they gave in New Delhi, "Azadi-the Only Way" on 21 October, at which Geelani was heckled.

[72] Geelani's younger son, Naseem works as a Senior scientist at Sher-e-Kashmir University of Agricultural Sciences and Technology in Srinagar.

[85] However, his visa request was rejected by the American government citing his violent approach in Kashmir conflict and he went to Mumbai for surgery.

The Indian government withheld it citing technical reasons, including the fact that he deliberately failed to fill in the nationality column required in the application.

[93][94] On 12 March 2014, rumors of Geelani's death, spread by edits to his Wikipedia entry, "a particular Hindi news channel", and pages on Facebook led the government of Kashmir to suspend internet and phone service, according to some sources.

The cuts in Internet service, hours after a statement by Hurriyat that Geelani would be flown to New Delhi for medical treatment, were blamed for spreading the rumours.

[101] Geelani reportedly developed breathing complications and died on 1 September 2021 at his Hyderpora residence in Srinagar due to his prolonged illness.

[102][103][104] His son Naseem alleged that police raided the house, took the body forcibly and buried it in a graveyard in his Hyderpora locality in the middle of the night.

[107][108] On 2 September 2021, FIR was registered against his family members under UAPA for clothing his body with a Pakistani flag and for allegedly raising “anti-national” slogans.

[110][112] On 14 August 2020, Pakistani President Arif Alvi conferred Nishan-e-Pakistan, Pakistan's highest civil award on Geelani to recognise his decades-long struggle for Kashmiris’ right to self-determination.

In November 2011, Geelani called for protests against the alleged "objectionable anti-Islamic" content on the social networking website Facebook, which he described as a "satanic audacity".

[119][120] After holding prayers for Osama in congregation of thousands of Kashmiris, a European Union delegation snubbed Geelani by cancelling a scheduled meeting with him.

"[126] Geelani would only support a dialogue process aimed at resolving Kashmir issue in accordance with the wishes and aspirations of the people of the state.

"[128] He further stated, "India should immediately and unconditionally release political prisoners, and withdraw cases against youth, which are pending in the courts for the past 20 years.

"[129] Geelani has been repeatedly criticised by Indian authorities for inciting violence in the Kashmir Valley and working as offshoot of Pakistan.

Pakistan High Commissioner Abdul Basit assured Geelani of complete support conveying that the country's stand on Kashmir remains unchanged despite regime change in New Delhi.

[11][113] In the last few decades, Geelani refused any proposal from Governments of India and Pakistan and was consistent in his demand for the United Nations promised plebiscite of 1948.