Separatist leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani resigns from Hurriyat Conference
Veteran separatist leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani on 29 June announced his dissociation from the Hurriyat Conference. He had floated this faction of the Hurriyat in 2003 by enforcing a vertical split in the separatist grouping. Sources suggest that Geelani was unhappy with Mirwaiz-Umar-Farooq for being silent on the abrogation of Article 370 and division of the erstwhile Jammu and Kashmir state into two Union territories.