Geelani steps down as TehreekeHurriyat chief Says can’t make practical contribution due to continuous house arrest

SRINAGAR: Senior separatist leader Syed Ali Geelani on Monday stepped down as chairman of Tehreek-e-Hurriyat (TeH), a constituent party of the hardline Hurriyat Conference.

Geelani, 88, announced the decision during the party’s advisory board meet and handed over the reins to his long-time aide and party general secretary Ashraf Sehrai, 72. Sehrai was chosen as interim chairman till the organisational elections which will be held late this year.

“I have stood my stand despite the testing times of jails, interrogations, domestic hardships, physical and psychological onslaught but the last 8 years of continuous house arrest and restrictions on the interactions with my party colleagues has dented the function of the organisation. Merely holding a position without practical contribution is injustice, not only with the post but the conscience as well. So today I will fully step down from the chairmanship,” Geelani told the advisory board.

“At this age, he (Geelani) needs some rest given the responsibilities of Tehreek-e-Hurriyat as well as Hurriyat Conference that he has had to shoulder. So, he transferred some of his burden on to the shoulders of Ashraf Sehrai,” Hurriyat Conference spokesman GA Gulzar said and added that Geelani, who had been TeH chief for 14 years, would continue to serve as Hurriyat Conference’s chairman.

TeH is part of the composite Hurriyat Conference, which consists of 24 smaller parties, and has been striving for Kashmir’s ‘Azadi for the sake of Islam or its amalgamation with Pakistan’.