How the Hurriyat faded into irrelevance

The strategy was not just to suppress the Hurriyat but to render it obsolete by exposing its internal contradictions, choking funding, cutting it off from the people.

- ABHINANDAN MISHRA

Not a few years ago, Kashmir separatist leader Bilal Lone had famously declared that the Kashmir issue could only be solved through a full-fledged war, and that the separatist groups, including the All Parties Hurriyat Conference (APHC), would continue to exist until Kashmir itself existed.

At the time, these words did not appear to be exaggerated—Hurriyat was the driver of how things moved in the Valley. Whether the Valley functioned or would shut down was decided by a single call from the Hurriyat Conference.

Six years after the abrogation of Article 370, Hurriyat is a defunct organisation—its leaders lost to history, like a few torn posters of “bandh” calls still stuck on the dilapidated walls of downtown Srinagar, and ignored. Even its headquarters, located on Rajbagh Road opposite Zero Bridge in Srinagar, stands deserted. Once the nerve centre of separatist coordination, the building now exists as an institution of non-consequence.

While many see 2019 as the year that ended the Hurriyat Raj in the Valley, internal observers say that the first blow was delivered in May 2014, when the Narendra Modi-led BJP came to power. By their accounts, by the end of 2017, the so-called “invincible” Hurriyat had already been shattered into pieces—though it still appeared to stand, waiting only for the final blow, which came in August 2019.

At one time, the Hurriyat Conference commanded the political narrative of Kashmir’s separatist movement. Its leaders were seen as the principal voice of dissent against Indian rule in the Valley, capable of mobilising hundreds of thousands through shutdown calls, funeral processions of killed terrorists, and mass street protests. Its statements would dictate the pace of daily life in Srinagar; schools and shops would shut down on its orders; and international delegations would routinely seek meetings with its representatives during visits to India.