Abid Bashir
Srinagar (NVI): Kashmiri separatist leader, Syed Ali Geelani has resigned from the Hurriyat Conference, citing present circumstances as the reason. Geelani leader had founded the forum and was its chairman.
In an audio message, circulated across Kashmir, Hurriyat Conference (G) chairman Geelani said, “Keeping in view the present situation in Hurriyat Conference, I announce to part ways from the Hurriyat forum. The decision has been conveyed to all the constituents of Hurriyat through official letters.”
It may be recalled that the majority of Hurriyat leaders were arrested in early 2017 in a terror funding case including Altaf Fantosh, Ayaz Akbar, Peer Saifullah and Mehrajudin Kalwal. They and are currently lodged in Delhi’s Tihar jail.
Geelani (90) has many underlying medical conditions including neck disk, chest issues, and weakness due to age and has been under continuous house arrest since 2008 at his Hydeprora, Srinagar residence.
In 1993, a joint Hurriyat Conference was formed of which Geelani, Mirwaiz Umar Farooq and incarcerated JKLF chairman Muhammad Yasin Malik was part of. In October 2004, after parting ways from the then joint Hurriyat Conference, Geelani had floated his own faction of Hurriyat under the title of Tehreek-e-Hurriyat.
The other faction of Hurriyat is led by Mirwaiz Umar Farooq and is familiar as Hurriyat (M).
-CHK/ARK
