J&K: Mirwaiz removes Hurriyat from social media handle; cites ‘government pressure’

SRINAGAR: Mirwaiz Umar Farooq removed connected Thursday his designation arsenic Hurriyat Conference president from his societal media handle, blaming the determination connected “pressure” from J&K authorities and calling it a “Hobson’s choice”.“For immoderate clip now, I was being pressed by the authorities to marque changes to my X (formerly Twitter) grip arsenic each constituents of Hurriyat Conference, including Awami Action Committee that I head, person been banned nether UAPA, making Hurriyat a banned organisation, failing which they would instrumentality down my handle,” Mirwaiz said.He bemoaned the alleged “pressure” that had unopen retired a cardinal outreach outlet for him since Thursday. “At a clip erstwhile nationalist abstraction and avenues of connection basal severely restricted, this level remains among the precise fewer means disposable to maine to scope retired to my radical and stock my views connected our issues with them and the extracurricular world,” Mirwaiz said.Most of Hurriyat’s 20-odd constituents person been proscribed since the Aug 2019 abrogation of Article 370 and J&K’s conversion into a Union territory.The societal media curbs came arsenic Mirwaiz was enactment nether location arrest, preventing J&K’s main cleric from addressing Friday prayers astatine Srinagar’s historical Jamia Mosque. Since his merchandise successful Sept 2023 aft being nether location apprehension for 4 years pursuing the abrogation of Article 370, Mirwaiz has often faced specified restrictions, with constabulary often detaining him astatine location connected Fridays without offering immoderate explanation.

The societal media determination unleashed trolling against Mirwaiz, with galore accusing him of compromising connected Hurriyat’s ideology. But erstwhile CM and PDP president Mehbooba Mufti described the removal arsenic “immaterial”, arguing that Hurriyat “is an thought and reflects alienation”. “You tin region names from immoderate level but you person to code this thought of Hurriyat,” Mehbooba said.PDP MLA Waheed Parra backed Mirwaiz, saying choosing “peace implicit rigidity is not weakness, it is leadership”.Tanvir Sadiq, spokesperson for J&K’s governing National Conference (NC), slammed the alleged coercion. “Mirwaiz is simply a spiritual scholar, and if helium is being pressured, past it is wrong,” Sadiq said.BJP described Mirwaiz’s determination arsenic the “right decision”. “It is simply a connection to J&K’s younker that the roadworthy of separatism has ended,” spokesperson Altaf Thakur said.