SRINAGAR: After remaining dormant for five years, Kashmir’s separatist outfit Hurriyat Conference seems to have got a lease of life with the victory of National Conference early this month in the first Assembly polls since Article 370 was read down.
Since his release in September 2023 from five years of house arrest, Hurriyat Conference leader Mirwaiz Umar Farooq’s activities have been confined to addressing weekly Friday sermons at Srinagar’s Jamia Masjid. But now he appears to have become very active, responding to the killing of migrant workers, welcoming Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s speech at the BRICS summit in Russia, and trying to revive the Hurriyat.
Mirwaiz broke the pattern in the run-up to the Assembly polls, making his first political speech from Jamia Masjid, saying elections are for sadak, bijli and paani (road, electricity, and water) and can’t resolve the Kashmir issue.
On October 23, he met other Hurriyat leaders—his first meeting with them since August 5, 2019 when the Centre scrapped J&K’s special status and bifurcated the erstwhile state into two UTs.
In a notable gesture, Mirwaiz condemned the killing of migrant workers at an under-construction site last week.
On October 25, Mirwaiz said he was ready to hold talks with the Centre. He tried to conflate Modi’s message at the BRICS summit that dialogue and diplomacy are the means to settle conflicts and not war, with the Kashmir problem.
Mirwaiz’s return to politics suggests a strategic repositioning. It also implies the government’s nuanced approach.
“Allowing meeting of Mirwaiz and his colleagues is an indication of a shift in the political environment in J&K,” said J&K Apni Party chief Altaf Bukhari.