Mirwaiz Umar Farooq

Mirwaiz Umar Farooq born 23 March 1973) is the chairman of the Awami Action Committee and the All Parties Hurriyat Conference- a grassroots coalition of pro-independence secessionist groups in the Indian state of Jammu & Kashmir. He attended Burn Hall School in Srinagar.

As a Mirwaiz (preacher) of Kashmir and head of the Hurriyat he has both an important religious and political role in the politics of the Valley.

Placed on the stage at the age of 17, following the assassination of his father, Mirwaiz Maulvi Farooq,then the leader of Awami Action Committee, Umar Farooq united 23 Kashmiri militant organizations into the All Parties Hurriyat Conference (APHC). He has constantly tried to raise much awareness about the Kashmir issue internationally. He was also shown among the Asian Heroes by the Times magazine.^[1][2] He maintains that dialogue must take place with India and Pakistan, so long as the Kashmiri aspirations are heard as well.

He inherited as the 12th Mirwaiz (Kashmiri term for traditional preacher of Muslims in Kashmir) in 1990.Before joining the pro-freedom Kashmir politics,Mirwaiz Umar Farooq was an alumnus of the prestigious Burn Hall School in Srinagar,he had interests in computers and he wanted to become a software engineer. But fate had something else in store for this man, who became founder-chairman of the All Parties Hurriyat Conference at the age of 20. He also holds a masters degree in Islamic Studies from Cairo University Egypt.