Masarat Alam succeeds Geelani as Hurriyat chairman

Hardline Hurriyat Conference has elected incarcerated leader Masarat Alam as its chairman following the death of Syed Ali Shah Geelani last week.

In a statement issued to the media on Tuesday, the hardline faction of the Hurriyat said that the people of Jammu and Kashmir look up to the amalgam's leadership with great expectations.

Shabir Ahmad Shah and Ghulam Ahmad Gulzar were elected as vice chairmen.

The amalgam said the appointments were temporary till elections are held according to the Hurriyat constitution.

Geelani, who died last week, was elected as the lifetime chairman of the amalgam, but he stepped down and dissociated from it last year.

He was avowedly a Pakistan supporter and had spearheaded the separatist movement in Jammu and Kashmir for over three decades.