‘Pressed by authorities’, Mirwaiz drops Hurriyat chairman title from X bio

Kashmir’s chief cleric and separatist leader Mirwaiz Umar Farooq’s decision to drop the title of ‘Hurriyat chairman’ from X after an “official warning” evoked a range of reactions in the Valley. The Mirwaiz was not allowed to join the Friday congregation at Jama Masjid in the city. 

In a post on X, Mr. Farooq said that 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 the 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,” Mr. Farooq quoted the officials as saying.

He said it posed a “Hobson’s choice”. “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,” Mr. Farooq, who was the first person to lead Hurriyat in 1993, said.

The All Parties Hurriyat Conference (APHC), as it was called in 1993, was an amalgam of more than 20 organisations in the 1990s, comprising separatist political groups, traders’ bodies and civil society groups. The APHC termed Kashmir as a “disputed territory” and demanded implementation of United Nations resolutions on Kashmir.

Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) president Mehbooba Mufti said it was Mr. Farooq’s personal decision to drop the title. She, however, added that Hurriyat was “an idea and represented the alienation felt by people”. “A person could be jailed but not the idea. If everything is normal in Kashmir, then why do so many raids take place every day,” she asked.

PDP lawmaker Waheed-ur-Rehmaan Parra likened Mr. Farooq’s decision to the Treaty of Hudaybiyyah, signed by Prophet Muhammad. “The Prophet agreed to erase the words ‘Muhammad-ur-Rasoolullah’, the very foundation of the Kalima, solely in the interest of peace. History remembers this not as compromise, but as wisdom, foresight, and moral courage,” he said.

He said Mr. Farooq’s move should be seen “as an act of peace, it must never be weaponized against him”. “Choosing peace over rigidity is not weakness; it is leadership,” Mr. Parra added.

The PDP leader said those attacking and trolling Mr. Farooq 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.

Ruling National Conference leader and lawmaker Tanvir Sadiq urged the authorities to review the decision. “The Mirwaiz is a religious scholar and widely respected. He claimed that he was pressurised (to remove the Hurriyat chairman title). If a respectable person like the Mirwaiz says he has been pressurised, this should be re-examined by the government,” Mr. Sadiq said.

Former separatist-turned-politician Sajad Lone, who heads the J&K Peoples Conference, however, criticised Mr. Farooq. “A surrender in lieu of protocol and CRPF security should not ever be compared with the peace treaty of Hudaybiyah in Mecca. It is my humble appeal to politicians in Kashmir to refrain from going into a religious overstretch,” he said.