Senior leaders of Hurriyat Conference splits, forms parallel group

In a major jolt to moderate Hurriyat Conference led by Mirwaiz Umer Farooq, four of its senior leaders on Friday split from the amalgam to form a parallel group and vowed to take the ongoing struggle for right of self-determination to its logical conclusion.

"We announce formation of Hurriyat Conference Jammu Kashmir (HCJK) which is the real Hurriyat and the representative of the aspirations of the people of Jammu and Kashmir," President of Democratic Freedom Party Shabir Ahmad Shah told.

Shah along with National Front Chairman Nayeem Ahmad Khan, Mahaz-e-Azadi chief patron Azam Inqilabi and Chairman Islamic Political Party Mohammad Yousuf Naqash came out in the open against the Mirwaiz-led Hurriyat after he (the Mirwaiz) wrote a letter to the amalgam's convener in Pakistan Occupied Kashmir asking him not to entertain the leaders and representatives who decide to "tread a separate path and have left Hurriyat on their own".

Shah said his Hurriyat is holding consultations with other like-minded parties and appealed them to join their group for taking the "freedom movement" to its logical conclusion. He said the time will prove that they were the real representatives of the aspirations of the people of the state.

"We are the real Hurriyat. They (Mirwaiz group) violated the preamble of the Hurriyat's constitution time and again," he said, adding, "We expect more pro-freedom leaders to join us shortly." He said the next course of action will be decided in due course. "We are going to shun our individual identities and will work under the banner of HCJK," he said.

Shah said his group would maintain close coordination with hardline Hurriyat Conference led by Syed Ali Shah Geelani. Geelani had parted ways with the erstwhile undivided Hurriyat Conference in 2003 to form a parallel group after he raised a rebellion against the leadership accusing them of failure to take action against the constituents which violated the Hurriyat constitution and fielded proxy candidates in the 2002 assembly elections when most of the leaders including Geelani were in jail.