The leadership crisis in the Mirwaiz faction of separatist conglomerate All Parties Hurriyat Conference (APHC) worsened on Monday with a group of dissidents holding a separate meeting, challenging their expulsion by Chairman Mirwaiz Umar Farooq.
Earlier this month, the Mirwaiz secretly mailed a letter asking the APHC’s PoK chapter convener, Yousuf Naseem, to stop inviting some “undisciplined” leaders to meetings and other programmes of the alliance.
Leaders of the APHC’s dissident constituents — Democratic Freedom Party (DFP), the National Front (NF), Mahaz-e-Azadi and the Islamic Political Party (IPP) — met at DFP chief Shabir Shah’s residence. They criticised the Mirwaiz’s decision of expelling senior separatist leaders like Mr. Shah, Nayeem Khan (NF) and Azam Inquilabi (Mahaz-e-Azadi) and Mohammad Yousuf Naqash (Islamic Political Party) over the issue of organisational discipline.
“The meeting discussed the secret letter, which has been written to confine the activities of the freedom movement,” said a statement issued by Mr. Khan. The meeting termed the contents of the letter “outrageous, condemnable and shameful — aimed at undermining the credentials of the stalwarts of the freedom movement.”
The members condemned this “childish act” and said such acts “would not be tolerated at any cost,” the statement said.
