Hardline separatist leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani on Friday said that the annual yatra to the Holy cave shrine of Amarnath in south Kashmir should be restricted to just a month instead of 60 days.

Geelani was addressing a rally in south Kashmir’s Tral town after the Friday prayers where his supporters were seen waving Pakistan flags and shouting slogans.

The separatist leader reached Tral, 45 km from capital Srinagar early Friday morning and later visited the home of a Khalid Muzaffar, who was killed last month.

The authorities had placed Geelani under house arrest and had not allowed him to visit Tral on April 16 when he had given a call for a rally in the town.

“The annual Amarnath yatra should be curtailed to one month instead of two months this year,” Geelani said.

The annual yatra begins on July 2 and will conclude on August 29 as per the schedule announced by the Shri Amarnath Shrine Board.

The separatist leader also opposed setting up of ‘composite townships’ for Kashmir migrant Pandits. He however, added that ‘the Pandits are welcome to return and settle in their original places’.

Last month, the state police filed an FIR against Geelani and Masarat Alam Bhat ‘for provocative activities and hoisting the Pakistan flag’ during a rally.

Masarat was subsequently arrested under the strict Public Safety Act and is lodged in the high security Kotbalwal jail in Jammu.

Image: Separatist leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani addresses a rally in south Kashmir’s Tral town. Photographs: Umar Ganie