SRINAGAR: After remaining dormant for five years, Kashmir’s separatist outfit Hurriyat Conference seems to have got a lease of life with the victory of National Conference early this month in the first Assembly polls since Article 370 was read down. Since his release in September 2023 from five years of house arrest, Hurriyat Conference leader Mirwaiz Umar Farooq’s activities have been confined to addressing weekly Friday sermons at Srinagar’s Jamia Masjid. But now he appears to have become very active, responding to the killing of migrant workers, welcoming Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s speech at the BRICS summit in Russia, and trying to revive the Hurriyat. Mirwaiz broke the pattern in the run-up to the Assembly polls, making his first political speech from Jamia Masjid, saying elections are for sadak, bijli and paani (road, electricity, and water) and can’t resolve the Kashmir issue.
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