Geelani made lifetime chairman of hardline Hurriyat

SRINAGAR: Hardline Hurriyat Conference today appointed Syed Ali Shah Geelani as its lifetime chairman while restructuring the separatist amalgam to accommodate leaders who defected recently from the rival faction headed by Mirwaiz Umar Farooq.

"Seeing the unshakable, steadfast, uncompromised and active leadership of Geelani, the Hurriyat conference had accepted him as its lifetime Chairman," a spokesman of the Hurriyat said after a meeting of the conglomerate of various separatist groups here.

The meeting thoroughly discussed the prevailing political situation in Kashmir and Hurriyat also made some vital changes in the organizational structure under Article 20 of the Hurriyat constitution, the spokesman said.

Senior separatist leader Shabir Ahmad Shah, who quit the moderate faction of Hurriyat headed by the Mirwaz last year, was appointed as the secretary general of the hardline Hurriyat faction.

"Shabir Ahmad Shah was made Secretary General while as Ghulam Nabi Sumji and Masarat Alam Bhat (who is lodged in a jail since April this year) were appointed as his deputies," the spokesman said.

Besides Shah, prominent Shia leader Agha Syed Hassan and Nayeem Ahmad Khan -- two other notable leaders to switch Hurriyat factions -- were appointed as members to the committee for social and political affairs.

Hassan was appointed as the provincial president for Ladakh region while as Khan was appointed as president for Jammu region.