The Jammu and Kashmir government has allowed moderate Hurriyat chairman Mirwaiz Umar Farooq to travel to Delhi, offering him a rare reprieve amid claims of his hardline rivals that he no longer represents the Hurriyat.
Mirwaiz was kept under house arrest for more than four years to prevent him from leading protests against the 2019 scrapping of the special status to Jammu and Kashmir. Although he was released in September, he had since occasionally been put under house detention as the Gaza war broke out and he batted for the rights of Palestinians.
The management of Srinagar’s grand mosque Jamia Masjid, where Mirwaiz gives Friday sermons, said in a statement on Tuesday that he was allowed by the government to visit Delhi because of a medical emergency, apparently to rebuff speculations that he is cosying up to the Centre.
“(Our) president, Mirwaiz-e-Kashmir Mohammad Umar Farooq, was allowed by the state authorities to travel to New Delhi yesterday (Monday). Mirwaiz had conveyed the personal nature of his visit after which the authorities allowed him,” a spokesman of Anjuman, the management body of the Jamia Masjid, said.
Mirwaiz, one of the few prominent separatists who has not been arrested, had kept his travel plans under wraps but Anjuman reacted after some social media handles said he had been spotted in Delhi.
An associate of Mirwaiz said he was granted permission to attend to a medical emergency.
“His mother is ailing and he is accompanying him. There is nothing political about it,” the associate said.
Mirwaiz, in addition to being the head of moderate Hurriyat, is Valley’s chief cleric.
Anjuman's statement said although Mirwaiz had been released from house detention, he continued to face restrictions.
“It is pertinent to mention here that despite his release from house detention in September 2023, he is repeatedly detained at his house, especially on Fridays,” the statement said.
It said Mirwaiz would return to the Valley in a “couple of weeks”.
Mukhtar Baba, the Pakistan-based purported spokesman of jailed Hurriyat leader Masarat Alam Bhat, said Mirwaiz no longer represents Hurriyat.
“Mirwaiz Umar Farooq is no more chairman of Hurriyat Conference. Both factions have merged and Masrat Alam Bhat is chairman of All Parties Hurriyat conference”, Baba wrote on his social media account.
However, Mirwaiz's associate rebuffed his claim and said he continues to represent Hurriyat.