Repeated detentions prompt top Hurriyat leader to offer resignation

SRINAGAR : Senior separatist leader and general secretary of the hardline Hurriyat Conference, Shabir Ahmad Shah, has offered to resign from the post, citing his on-and-off police detentions as the reason.

Ahmad Shah, who is also chairman of Democratic Freedom Party (DFP), told Hindustan Times that he had written a letter to Hurriyat Conference chairman Syed Ali Geelani, requesting him to elect somebody else.

“I wrote to Geelani sahab saying that I am not able to do justice with the post. For the past seven months, I have either remained in jail or under house detention — affecting work of the organisation,” Shah further said.

Shah is among the veteran leaders of the separatist camp. Born in the June of 1953 in south Kashmir’s Anantnag, he is the founder of the Jammu and Kashmir Democratic Freedom Party (JKDFP), one of the political organizations seeking “right to self-determination for Jammu and Kashmir”.

He has been a strong advocator of unity among separatists and had joined Syed Ali Geelani-led Hurriyat Conference in 2015.

Shah has spent a major portion of his life in jail with Amnesty International once naming him as ‘prisoner of conscience’. He said the post of general secretary was very important as far as taking Hurriyat to the grass roots level was concerned.

“I want the Hurriyat executive council, which will meet soon under the chairmanship of Geelani sahib, to excuse me from the job and put somebody else who can do justice to the post,” he said.

“Work is getting affected because of me. I will continue to work for Hurriyat,” Shah further explained.

Shabir Ahmad Shah said his detentions were not solely related to his work as general secretary as he often involved himself in public rallies and other work.