organisations forming majority of the alliance. Geelani became the chairman in 1998, and was replaced by Abdul Ghani Bhat on 20 July 2000. Geelani later sought to turn the Hurriyat into a pro-Pakistan and pro-jihadist organisation. He also criticised the Jammu and Kashmir People's Conference for fielding proxy candidates in the 2002 assembly election and sought its removal, threatening to launch his own party. In May 2003, the Jamaat-e-Islami removed him as its representative from the executive body of Hurriyat in order to counter hardliners in the organisation. In August 2003 it removed him from the position of head of its political bureau, appointing Ashraf Sehrai in his place. The appointment of Mohammad Abbas Ansari as chairman of Hurriyat precipitated a crisis in the organisation and it split in September 2003. Geelani formed his own faction within the Hurriyat Conference, called the "All Parties Parties Hurriyat Conference (G)", in September 2003 and was elected as its chairman for three years, replacing its interim chairman Masarat Alam Bhat. It consists of 24 parties. In 2006 he was re-elected for a term of three years despite expressing his desire to step down owing to ill health. In 2015, he was appointed as the lifetime chairman of the faction. In February 2004 he sought to form his own party. The Jamaat-e-Islami prohibited him from doing so and suspended him. In response, he dropped the idea for launching the party and tried to take over the leadership of the organisation. Bowing to the pressure, the Jamaat readmitted him in August 2004 and allowed him to form his own party. In the same month he founded the Tehreek-e-Hurriyat and was elected as its chairman for three years in October 2004. He was re-elected to the position for three year-terms consecutively in 2007, 2010 and 2013. In 2017 he was given a year-long extension after the party failed to hold regular elections in 2016 due to the 2016–2017 Kashmir unrest. Jammat-e-Islami removed Geelani from its advisory council in 2005. It later started distancing itself from him and stated that he did not represent them, but the Tehreek-e-Hurriyat. In April 2010 it temporarily expelled him from the organisation due to him defending the freedom of the author of his biography Qaid-e-Inqilab – Ek Tareekh, Ek Tehreek over making derogatory remarks against the party, but later restored him as a basic member (rukun). Geelani had called for numerous