Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, the chief cleric and a moderate separatist voice in the Kashmir Valley, has removed the designation 'Chairman All Parties Hurriyat Conference' from his verified X profile.

The bio on the 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.

The Mirwaiz, whose organisation Awami Action Committee has been banned by the Centre under the stringent anti-terror law, was not immediately available for comment.

Formed in 1993, the All Party Hurriyat Conference (APHC) emerged as a conglomerate 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, the organisation’s dominance steadily waned due to multiple factors, including 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 Since then, several senior leaders have been arrested or booked under stringent laws, while others have withdrawn entirely from public activity.