The Union Home Minister will arrive in Kashmir in the afternoon after completing his visit to the Jammu division.

As Amit Shah prepares to visit the Valley, another separatist leader quit the Hurriyat Conference after pledging his loyalty to the country.

Bashir Ahmad Andrabi, head of Kashmir Freedom Front (KFF), announced his complete dissociation with the separatist politics of Hurriyat Conference and pledged his loyalty to the Constitution.

In a written statement, Andrabi declared that neither he nor his organisation has any association with the All Parties Hurriyat Conference or its factions.

He warned that any attempt to link his party to separatist groups would result in legal action.

“We reject the ideology of the Hurriyat Conference, which has failed to serve the people’s real interests,” Andrabi said.

Andrabi’s exit follows a growing trend among former separatist leaders distancing themselves from the Hurriyat.

Ghulam Nabi War, chairman of Tehreek-i-Istiqamat, recently severed ties with the Hurriyat Conference, saying that Hurriyat had lost credibility and public trust.

War also cautioned against misuse of his name or his party’s identity, warning of legal consequences for any such actions.

Before this, the Jammu & Kashmir Democratic Political Movement (JKDPM) and the Jammu and Kashmir People’s Movement (JKPM) left the Hurriyat Conference, declaring true allegiance to the country’s Constitution and faith in the democratic system.

The Union Home Minister had welcomed these moves, describing them as a reflection of growing national integration in Jammu and Kashmir following the revocation of Article 370.

The abandoning of the Hurriyat Conference has followed the literal non-existence of the separatist conglomerate, which was formed in 1993, purportedly to give political voice to the armed insurgency.

Initially, 26 social, political and religious groups/organisations, including the Kashmir High Court Bar Association and the association of government employees, were also constituents of the then Hurriyat Conference formed on March 3, 1993.

The Hurriyat split into two groups on September 7, 2003. One was led by the hardline separatist leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani and the other by moderate separatist leader Mirwaiz Umar Farooq.

After August 5, 2019, when Article 370 was abrogated, the Hurriyat Conference became defunct, and no separatist political activity has taken place like shutdown calls, closure on visits of national dignitaries to Kashmir, or protest Bandhs on the country’s Independence Day and Republic Day functions.

Stone pelting, which had become the biggest law and order challenge in Kashmir, has completely stopped after the abrogation of Article 370.