Geelani re-elected hurriyat chairman

SRINAGAR: Hardline separatist leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani has been re-elected as the chairman of his faction of the Hurriyat Conference for the third consecutive three-year term.

Geelani was elected to the post unopposed during 'Majlis-e-Shoura' (advisory council) meeting here last evening, a Hurriyat spokesman said today.

The 82-year-old hawk was first elected as chairman of the hardline faction in 2004, a year after engineering a vertical split in the undivided Hurriyat over the alleged participation of Peoples Conference -- one of the constituents -- in 2002 assembly elections.

He was re-elected to the post unopposed in 2007.