Veteran Kashmiri leader and formerAzad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) president and prime minster Sardar Muhammad Abdul Qayyum Khan, who passed away after protracted illness on Friday, was buried with protocol in his ancestral graveyard at Ghazi Abad, Bagh on Saturdayin the presence of a large number of mourners.
Thousands of peoplefrom all walks of life across Azad Kashmir and Islamabad, including the heads ofvarious political and religious parties, attendedthe funeral ceremony of the late “Mujahid-e-Awwal (first soldier)”,who is believed to have fired the first bullet in the 1947 war of liberation to establish AJK.
Sardar Khan was considered as one of the founders of the Kashmir Liberation Movement and the supreme leader of the Muslim Conference which is the oldest political party in AJK.
On Sardar Khan’s demise, the AJK government declared three-day mourning with the flags flying half-mast on public buildings.
Prominentamong those who participated in the funeral were acting AJK president SardarGhulamSadiq Khan, Pakistan Railways Minster KhawajaSaadRafique, Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) AJK chief Raja FarooqHaider Khan along with cabinet ministers and membersof AJK Legislative Assembly.
The attendees paid tributes to the prominent Kashmiri leader who devoted his life for the cause of Kashmirand the rights of downtrodden people in the state. He remained steadfastand committed to his ideals and ideology throughout his life, the attendees at the funeral said. The country has been deprived of a great political leader whose contributions for strengthening democracy and liberation movement of Kashmir would always be remembered, they added.
