While most of Hurriyat’s key constituents have already been banned by the Centre, several separatist outfits that have now dissociated from the virtually-defunct conglomerate exist mostly on paper.
Amid his current three-day visit to Jammu and Kashmir (J&K), Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Tuesday announced that three more organisations have dissociated themselves from the separatist amalgam Hurriyat Conference.
“Three more organizations, namely Jammu Kashmir Islamic Political Party, Jammu and Kashmir Muslim Democratic League, and Kashmir Freedom Front, disassociate themselves from the Hurriyat. It is a prominent demonstration of the people’s trust in the Constitution of India within the valley,” Shah said in a post on X.
“Modi Ji’s vision for a united and powerful Bharat stands even more bolstered today, as so far 11 such organizations have shunned separatism, proclaiming unwavering support for it,” the Union Home Minister said.
Over the last three days, the three little-known separatist outfits, in similarly-worded declarations, stated that they have no relation with any factions of the Hurriyat Conference and its ideology and that they abide by the Constitution of India.
The Muslim Democratic League headed by Hakim Abdul Rashid was part of the hardline Hurriyat faction led earlier by late Syed Ali Shah Geelani. Despite his outfit having barely any presence on the ground, Rashid was appointed the Hurriyat spokesman by Geelani when its entire leadership was jailed by the government ahead of the abrogation of Article 370, which granted special status to J&K, in August 2019.
The other two outfits, Islamic Political Party and Kashmir Freedom Front, are led by Mohammad Yousuf Naqash and Bashir Ahmad Andrabi respectively.
Their statements are latest in a series of declarations made by several separatist outfits distancing themselves from the Hurriyat. While most of the Hurriyat’s key constituents have already been banned by the Centre, several outfits that have distanced from the separatist conglomerate over the last two weeks exist mostly on paper.
The identical declarations by their leaders have come at a time when the J&K Police have launched a renewed crackdown on the separatists in what it calls “dismantling the remnants” of the separatist structure in the Valley. The J&K Police’s control falls under the Lieutenant Governor in the Union Territory’s power-sharing arrangement.
The police have raided the houses of separatist leaders across the Valley and launched investigations in old cases. Many of them have been in jail, of whom several have been behind bars since August 2019.
In the nearly six years since then, in the face of the action by the authorities, the Hurriyat has been rendered virtually defunct. The conglomerate has not issued any political statement during this period.
While almost the entire top- and middle-rung leadership of the hardline Hurriyat faction, led by Masarat Alam since the demise of Geelani, is in jail, the moderate faction led by Mirwaiz Umar Farooq – which has always advocated dialogue for resolution of the Kashmir issue – saw two of its biggest outfits recently banned by the Centre. They included Mirwaiz’s own political outfit Awami Action Committee (AAC) and the Ittehad-ul-Muslimeen led by Shia leader Masroor Abbas Ansari.
Mirwaiz’s movements remain tightly controlled by the authorities, even after his four-year house detention ended in 2023. The Valley’s chief cleric has often not been allowed to deliver his Friday sermon at Srinagar’s Jamia Masjid.
Many of the other prominent constituents of the Mirwaiz-led faction are no longer active, leaving him as its sole voice. Bilal Lone of the People’s Conference and Professor Abdul Gani Bhat of the J-K Muslim Conference, who were executive members of the Hurriyat, distanced themselves from politics long back and, unlike others, were not arrested or put under house detention.
