Mirwaiz asked to remove Hurriyat Chairman tag from X profile

Feeling marginalised, Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, the Chief cleric in the Kashmir Valley, has been coerced by the authorities to remove the tag ‘Chairman of the All Parties Hurriyat Conference’ from his verified X profile (formerly Twitter).

Mirwaiz himself posted the development on his X handle on Friday.

Soon after, he was put under house arrest and prevented from going to the historic Jama Masjid, Srinagar, to deliver the sermon and offer Friday prayers.

The latest move has elicited sharp reactions from various quarters in the valley. In a post on X this morning, Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, who has 232K followers, said that he was being pressed by the authorities to make changes to his social media profile, as all constituent factions of the Hurriyat Conference, including the Awami Action Committee (AAC) that he heads, have been banned under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA).

“For some time now, I was being pressed by the authorities to make changes to my X (formerly Twitter) handle as Hurriyat chairman, since all constituent factions of the Hurriyat Conference, including the Awami Action Committee that I head, have been banned under the UAPA, making Hurriyat a banned organisation. Failing which, they threatened to take down my handle,” said Mirwaiz.

He said the X platform remains among the very few means available to him to reach out to his people.

“At a time when public space and avenues of communication stand severely restricted, this platform remains among the very few means available to me to reach out to my people and share my views on our issues with them and with the outside world. Under such circumstances, it was a Hobson’s choice I was left to make,” he said.

In a post on X, the Mirwaiz Manzil, the office of the Mirwaiz, said that Mirwaiz Umar Farooq was also barred from attending the launch of the Mirwaiz Foundation’s 2026 calendar titled “Pillars of Faith – Wooden Mosques on the Historic Silk Route”, which was scheduled to be held at the Jamia Masjid.

Mirwaiz, whose own organisation, Awami Action Committee, has been banned by the Centre under the stringent anti-terror law, was not immediately available for comments.

Reacting to the latest development, Chief Spokesman of the ruling National Conference told reporters in Srinagar, “Mirwaiz is a respectable religious scholar, and if he is being pressurised, then it is wrong and must be looked into.”

Former Chief Minister and Peoples Democratic Party Chief Mehbooba Mufti said, “Hurriyat is an idea, not an individual that you can put in jail.” After the abrogation of Article 370 in 2019, the Centre banned most of the constituent organisations of the APHC, and many senior leaders have since been arrested/booked under stringent laws or have withdrawn from public activity entirely.