Mirwaiz says removing "Chairman Hurriyat" from his X account was 'Hobson's Choice' as authorities pressed for it

Srinagar: Prominent Hurriyat leader Mirwaiz Umar Farooq removed the “Chairman, All Parties Hurriyat Conference” designation from his verified account on X stating that the authorities had pressed him to make the changes making it a ‘Hobson’s Choice.’

Mirwaiz led a faction of Hurriyat Conference majorly known for their engagement with different governments in New Delhi including that of BJP under Atal Bihari Vajpayee and Congress under Manmohan Singh.

“For some time now, I was being pressed by the authorities to make changes to my X (formerly Twitter) handle as Hurriyat chairman, as all constituents of Hurriyat Conference, including the Awami Action Committee that I head have been banned under the UAPA, making Hurriyat a banned organisation, failing which they will take down my handle,” Mirwaiz informed on X on Friday morning, after making the changes on Thursday night.


“At a time when public space and avenues of communication stand severely restricted, this platform remains among the very few means available to me to reach out to my people and share my views on our issues with them, and the outside world. Under such circumstances, it is a Hobson’s choice I was left to make,” said Mirwaiz.

The screen shot of his changed profile went viral on social media in Kashmir. This triggered a rush of comments from netizens on social media, with some terming it "a pragmatic decision in current circumstances" while others seeing it as "scaling down and compromise from the politics Hurriyat espoused."

All Parties Hurriyat Conference is a conglomerate of political organizations, formed in 1993 at the peak of militancy in Kashmir, to press for the resolution of the Kashmir issue. At the time of inception it had seven parties who were part of the executive council and 16 parties were part of the general body.

Mirwaiz was announced as its first chairman, despite being the youngest–around 20 years old–and inexperienced among all the representatives. A decade later when APHC was divided into two factions-over ideological and political differences, Mirwaiz led a faction, which engaged in a dialogue process with the NDA government as well as the UPA governments in New Delhi.

The other faction was led by Syed Ali Shah Geelani, who passed away in September 2021, at the age of 92, while he was under house arrest. Majority of the Hurriyat leaders, since its formation and some even before that, were intermittently jailed and released on bail in connection with the cases registered against them.

After over 25 years of its formation, the NDA government led by Narendra Modi, in run up to the abrogation of Article 370 and 35 (A) and downgrading of erstwhile state of J&K into the two Union Territories of J&K and Ladakh in 2019, decided to go full throttle against all factions and parties of APHC.

First, most of the active Hurriyat leaders including Muhammad Ashraf Sehrai, Shabir Shah, Nayeem Khan, Yasin Malik, Masrat Alam, Mehrajdin Kalwal, Shahid ul Islam, Altaf Shah and several others including hundreds of activists were jailed in different cases registered against them over the years.

Sehrai and Altaf died in jail, while others continue to remain in incarceration. Some of them died of natural causes like Professor Abdul Gani Bhat and Moulvi Abbas Ansari.

Mirwaiz was put under house arrest for over four years. Simultaneously, the Ministry of Home Affairs started banning the organizations from both the factions of Hurriyat Conference under Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act. Some of the organizations have been banned for the second consecutive term of five years.