Jammu, Dec 26 : All Parties Hurriyat Conference (APHC) leader Mirwaiz Umar Farooq on Friday removed the ‘Chairman’ designation associated with the Hurriyat Conference from his verified social media profiles on X (formerly Twitter) and Facebook.
Explaining the move, Farooq said he was compelled to make the change after authorities warned that his social media accounts could be taken down, citing the ban on the Hurriyat Conference and its constituent organisations under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA).
In a post on X, Farooq said he had been under pressure for some time to amend his profile description.
“For some time now, I was being pressed by the authorities to make changes to my X handle as Hurriyat chairman, as all constituents of the Hurriyat Conference, including the Awami Action Committee that I head, have been banned under the UAPA, making Hurriyat a banned organisation. Failing this, they would take down my handle,” he wrote.
Farooq said he had little option but to comply, noting that social media remains one of the few platforms available to him to communicate with people and express his views.
“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. Under such circumstances, it is a Hobson’s choice I was left to make,” he said.
Following the abrogation of Article 370 in August 2019, the Centre banned most constituent groups of the APHC under stringent laws. Several senior separatist leaders were subsequently arrested or withdrew from public life. The Awami Action Committee, led by Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, was also banned under the UAPA.
Formed on March 9, 1993, the All Parties Hurriyat Conference emerged as an umbrella body of separatist groups in Jammu and Kashmir.