Hurriyat Conference chairman Mirwaiz Umar Farooq on Friday said he was pressured by the authorities to remove his designation as the chairman of the separatist conglomerate from his X profile or risk losing his social media handle.
The head Muslim cleric of Kashmir said he chose to delete “chairman All Parties Hurriyat Conference” from his X bio, describing his decision as a “Hobson’s choice”.
“For some time now, I was being pressed by the authorities to make changes to my X handle as Hurriyat chairman, as all constituents 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 will take down my handle,” the Mirwaiz posted on X.
“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,” he added.
The Centre has banned most of the separatist organisations in Jammu and Kashmir, but the Hurriyat Conference — an umbrella group — has not been proscribed so far.
The edited bio of the Mirwaiz, who has over two lakh followers on X, now has only his name, location and basic details.
Sources close to the Mirwaiz said senior police officers verbally conveyed the directive to him.
The move has been criticised by the ruling National Conference and pro-India Opposition parties. The Centre or the lieutenant governor chose not to react.
NC chief spokesperson and MLA Tanvir Sadiq said the Mirwaiz was a respected political, social and religious scholar. “He has been talking about people and their problems for years. So I think if there is any kind of pressure, then it should be looked at,” Sadiq said.
Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) chief and former chief minister Mehbooba Mufti said she could not comment on the Mirwaiz’s “personal decision” of dropping the designation, but cautioned that Hurriyat was an idea that could not be jailed.
“Hurriyat is a thought, not a human who can be jailed. There is alienation here. People find a gulf between them and the country (widening),” she told reporters here. “You can remove Hurriyat from a platform but the alienation has to be addressed.”
PDP MLA Waheed Parra supported the Mirwaiz’s decision, comparing it to the Treaty of Hudaybiyyah in which Prophet Mohammed agreed to remove the title of “Prophet” in the interest of peace.
“If Mirwaiz Kashmir has removed the APHC tag as an act of peace, it must never be weaponised against him. Choosing peace over rigidity is not weakness; it is leadership,” Parra said on X.
“Mirwaiz has acted within the framework of law and circumstances. Those attacking and trolling him for this decision are deliberately trying to undermine him, making his path harder despite the extraordinary challenges he has endured and the supreme sacrifice of his father. Such attacks do not serve justice or peace; they only deepen division,” he added.
The development has unfolded weeks after the country’s civil society members, led by Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, reached out to the Mirwaiz, fuelling speculation of a change in the Centre’s policy on separatists.
Hurriyat has rarely issued political statements since the scrapping of Jammu and Kashmir's special status in 2019. However, the Mirwaiz continues to advocate dialogue for the resolution of the Kashmir issue during his Friday sermons at the Jamia Masjid in Srinagar.
The office of Kashmir’s chief cleric on Friday said the Mirwaiz was placed under house arrest and prevented from going to the Jamia Masjid.