Srinagar/New Delhi, March 6: In a humane gesture towards ailing Hurriyat hardliner Syed Ali Shah Geelani, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh today said the Kashmiri separatist leader should be given all assistance and allowed to go abroad for treatment.

The decision came a day after Geelani’s party, the Tehreek-e-Hurriyat, appealed to the Centre to allow him to travel abroad.

In Srinagar, passport officer S. Ramalu said Geelani’s application for a passport was being processed.

The separatist leader (in picture) was diagnosed with cancer in his lone kidney yesterday at Delhi’s Apollo Hospital. The other kidney was removed around four years ago when a malignancy was detected while he was in detention.

Geelani was being repeatedly denied a passport for his unflinching stand on Kashmir. The only time he was allowed to travel abroad in the last 10 years was in 2005 when he went for the Haj.

His deputy Mohammad Ashraf Sahrai said doctors told them it would be “better” if he was taken abroad. “If he is allowed to go, we will take him to either the US or UK.”

Offers of medical help have come in from various quarters, including Pakistan, where cricketer-turned-politician Imran Khan said Geelani would be treated free in his hospital in Lahore.