Octogenarian separatist leader Syed Ali Geelani was appointed lifetime head of his faction of Hurriyat Conference on Wednesday after several deserters of his rival faction led by Mirwaiz Umar Farooq were accommodated at key posts. Shabir Shah of Democratic Freedom Party was nominated as Secretary General of Geelani-led Hurriyat, which is off-late being backed by Pakistan after the Nawaz Sharif Government hardened its stance on Kashmir.
Interestingly, incarcerated separatist leader Masarat Alam Bhat, would be deputy to Shabir Shah along-with another senior leader Ghulam Nabi Sumjhi, a former legislator of Muslim United Front (MUF), who became a staunch separatist after the eruption of militancy in Kashmir in 1989. “After seeing the unshakable, steadfast, uncompromised and active leadership of Syed Ali Geelani, the Hurriyat conference had accepted him as its lifetime Chairman”, a statement of Hurriyat said in a statement after the Advisory Council meeting held. Geelani has been under house arrest for most of the time since April when he returned from New Delhi following his winter stay there.