and resigned in 1989 when armed militancy had started showing on the streets of Srinagar. For the last 20 years he lives at Hyderpora. His ancestral home in Duroo (Sopore) was destroyed allegedly by security forces during militancy.
Starting from a reporter for National Conference’s official organ Khidmat under the guidance of Maulana Mohammed Syed Masudi, he later joined JeI and started to edit JeI’s official organ Azaan (since closed) and finally rose to become the Vice President of the party. Despite being JeI’s only crowd puller, he could never manage his election to the Amir (President’s) berth. He, however, became chairman of the Hurriyat, once. Till 2003 when he set up his own Hurriyat, he was heading JeI’s political bureau and in that capacity he was in the Hurriyat executive. But soon he developed his problems in the JeI creating a situation that he set up his own party Tehreek-e-Hurriyat-e-Kashmir in 2004. He was formally expelled from JeI in April 2010.
Notwithstanding his health, he continues to be the most mobile separatist when out of jail or hospital. But the years of militancy were not easy for him. He was arrested many times, once on charges of money laundering. He survived a series of assassination bids on his life and, once, at the peak of internecine clashes between militant outfits on apparently ideological fronts, he was even kidnapped. Then, he was called Rehber-e-Inquilab (leader of the revolution) by the Hizb-ul-Mujahideen, then tartly referred to by ideologist Inayatullah Andrabi as leader of revolution without revolution. However, Hizb was the JeIs armed wing then which promoted the title. He had to survive with many accusations especially that his statements led to the assassination of his colleague, Abdul Ghani Lone, an allegation he has rejected umpteen times.
