Srinagar: Capping two months of internal squabbling and a war of attrition in public, Hurriyat Conference, the biggest separatist outfit in Jammu and Kashmir, on September 7 split with 13 of its 25 constituents removing its chairman Maulana Mohammad Abbas Ansari and replacing him with Masrat Alam as its interim chief.

The 13 constituents, mostly members of Hurriyat general council, met at the residence of hardliner and pro-Pakistan Jamaat-e-Islami leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani and decided to replace Ansari and suspended the seven-member executive committee, the highest decision-making forum of the amalgam.

A five-member committee was formed to review the Hurriyat constitution and suggest necessary amendments to end the "autocratic" decisions taken by the executive committee. The committee comprises Alam, Ghulam Nabi Sumjhi, Syedullah Tantray, Ghulam Mohammad Hubbi and Aga Syed Hassan Budgami.

Reacting to the development, Ansari said that those who chose to part ways with the amalgam were "free to do so".

"We will expel them all for breaking the discipline of the amalgam," he added.

Ansari's immediate predecessor as Hurriyat chairman Abdul Ghani Bhatt described the action of the splinter group as "unconstitutional and illegal" and said it "probably wanted nothing more than meeting the whims of malignant and narcissistic leadership"

He said general council members have absolutely no authority to remove the Chairman.

PTI