MASARAT ALAM NAMED SYED ALI SHAH GEELANI’S SUCCESSOR
SRINAGAR: The hardline All Parties Hurriyat Conference on Tuesday appointed Masarat Alam Bhat, an aide of deceased separatist leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani, as the outfit’s chairman. Bhat is currently in jail for funding of terror organisations. A statement from the outfit said that a “consultative exercise was conducted with the members of the executive council of the APHC using different mediums to avoid arrests and Indian counter strategy”. Geelani, who was the outfit’s lifetime chairman, died on September 1.
SRINAGAR: The hardline All Parties Hurriyat Conference (APHC) has appointed Masarat Alam Bhat, a close aide of separatist leader Syed Ali Geelani who died on September 1, as the chairman of the outfit, according to a press release issued by the party on Tuesday. Bhat is currently in jail.
The APHC statement, which was mailed to some media outlets and was also viral on social media, said they held a meeting in Srinagar during which the decision was taken. The statement could not be independently verified.
It said that a “consultative exercise was conducted with the members of the executive council of the APHC using different mediums to avoid arrests and Indian counter strategy”.
“Masarat Alam Bhat has been elected as next chairman of APHC. Shabir Ahmad Shah and Ghulam Ahmad Gulzar, both, elected as vice-chairmen,” it said.
The APHC was apparently headless since June 29, 2020 when Geelani, its lifetime chairman, announced his separation from the amalgam 17 years after he had launched the organisation. He had accused Hurriyat members of inaction after the revocation of Article 370 on August 5,2019.
Bhat, the 49-year-old firebrand Hurriyat leader and Muslim League chairman, is currently in Tihar Jail since June 2019 in a case filed by National Investigation Agency under alleged terror funding. Shabir Shah is also in jail.
Bhat has been in jail for most of the time since his arrest in October 2010 following his alleged role in the mass public agitation that year.
Bhat was briefly released in March 2015 triggering backlash from the then ruling Peoples’
Democratic Party which was in coalition with Bharatiya Janata Party.
The government arrested Bhat again on April 17, 2015 on the charges of ‘sedition’ and ‘waging war against the state’ after he allegedly raised pro-pakistan slogans in a rally. He was subsequently booked under public safety act (PSA).