Separatist Syed Ali Shah Geelani quits All Party Hurriyat Conference

Gulf Today Report

Senior hardline separatist leader, Syed Ali Shah Geelani on Monday said he is distancing himself from the separatist platform -- the All Party Hurriyat Conference.

The 90-year-old, who had led the separatist movement in Kashmir Valley since the 1990s, was a lifelong chairman of the Hurriyat. He has mostly been in house arrest since 2010.

In a press statement the octogenarian separatist leader, Geelani said he is distancing himself completely from the All Party Hurriyat Conference.

"He has written a detailed letter to Hurriyat members in which he said, given the present situation within the Hurriyat Conference, he is completely dissociating himself from the platform", the statement said.

In his detailed letter to the members of the Hurriyat Conference, Geelani has said that henceforth he shall not be answerable in any manner about the future conduct of the constituent members of the platform.

Hurriyat Conference was formed on March 9, 1993 as a united political platform of the separatist parties in Kashmir.

Ten years after its formation, the Hurriyat Conference split into the moderate group headed by Mirwaiz Umer Farooq and the hardline group headed by Syed Ali Shah Geelani.

Not keeping good health, Geelani has mostly remained under house arrest in his Srinagar uptown of Hyderpora area residence for the last four years.

Before that also authorities used to detain him on and off under house arrest.