Mirwaiz Umar Farooq drops ‘Hurriyat chairman’ title from X profile

Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, Kashmir chief cleric, on Friday (December 26, 2025) said he “had a Hobson’s choice” and decided to remove the Hurriyat chairman title from his social media handle on X.

“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,” the Mirwaiz said.

He said 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 added.

The Mirwaiz was the first chairman of separatist amalgam All Parties Hurriyat Conference formed in 1993. The amalgam compromised separatist political groups, traders’ bodies and civil society groups. The APHC termed Kashmir as a dispute and demanded implementation of United Nations resolutions on Kashmir.