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 edited bio in Mirwaiz’s X handle only contains his name and basic location details. He has more than two lakh followers.
Elaborating the reason behind his decision, Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, sai, “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.”
He has also edited the bio of his verified Facebook account, which now identifies him as ‘Spiritual Leader of Kashmiri Muslims’.
Sources suggest that this was a strong indication that Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, a leading voice of moderate Hurriyat, has said goodbye to separatist politics in Kashmir.
