Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, the chief cleric and a moderate separatist voice in the Kashmir Valley, has removed the designation of “Chairman All Parties Hurriyat Conference” from his verified X profile, citing pressure from authorities following the ban on Hurriyat constituents under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA).
Explaining the move, Mirwaiz said he was compelled to make the change after being warned that his account would be taken down if the designation remained, describing the situation as a “Hobson’s choice”.
“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.
“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,” Mirwaiz said on X.
The bio on Mirwaiz’s X handle, edited on Thursday evening, now carries only his name and basic location details. He has more than two lakh followers on the platform.
Mirwaiz, whose own organisation, the Awami Action Committee, has been banned by the Centre under the stringent anti-terror law, was not immediately available for further comment.
Formed in 1993, the All Parties Hurriyat Conference (APHC) emerged as an alliance of separatist groups in Jammu and Kashmir and, at its peak, wielded considerable influence, enabling it to coordinate mass shutdowns and political mobilisations. Over the past decade, however, its dominance steadily waned due to internal infighting and a subsequent crackdown by the Centre that sharply tightened its approach towards separatist groups.
Following the abrogation of Article 370 in 2019, the Centre banned most of the constituent organisations of the APHC. Since then, several senior leaders have been arrested or booked under stringent laws, while others have withdrawn entirely from public activity.