Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, the chief cleric of Kashmir and a moderate separatist leader, has removed the designation “Chairman All Parties Hurriyat Conference” from his verified X profile. The change was made on Thursday evening, and his bio now only mentions his name and location. Mirwaiz has over two lakh followers on the platform.
Explaining the move, Mirwaiz said on X on Friday that he was under pressure from the authorities to change his profile because the Hurriyat Conference and all its constituent groups, including the Awami Action Committee that he leads, have been banned under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act. He said he was told that if he did not remove the designation, his social media account would be taken down.
“For some time now, I was being pressed by the authorities to make changes to my X handle as Hurriyat chairman, since all constituent factions of the Hurriyat Conference, including the Awami Action Committee that I head, have been banned under the UAPA, making Hurriyat a banned organisation. Failing which, they threatened to take down my handle,” Mirwaiz wrote.
He described the decision as a “Hobson’s choice” and said that social media remains one of the few ways left for him to communicate with people. “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 with the outside world,” he said.
Mirwaiz was not immediately available for further comment. His organisation, the Awami Action Committee, has already been banned by the Centre under the UAPA.
The All Parties Hurriyat Conference was formed in 1993 as an umbrella body of separatist groups in Jammu and Kashmir and once played a major role in political mobilisation and shutdown calls. Over the past decade, its influence has declined due to internal divisions and a sustained crackdown by the Centre. After the abrogation of Article 370 in 2019, most Hurriyat constituents were banned, several leaders were jailed or booked under strict laws, and many withdrew from public life.
