JKLF co-founder Amanullah Khan dies at 82 in Pakistan

Srinagar: Amanullah Khan, the co-founder of Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF) and the man who introduced gun to Kashmiri youth in 1989, died at a hospital in Pakistan’s Rawalpindi on Tuesday. He was 82.

Amanullah Khan, the father-in-law of Kashmir’s People’s Conference president Sajad Ghani Lone, breathed his last at 8:30 am local time.

The JKLF leader, who had led a violent campaign for independent Kashmir, including the killing of an Indian diplomat in the UK in the mid-80s and hijacking of an Indian Airlines plane to Lahore, had made Pakistan his home for three decades.

Khan was born in the Astore area of Gilgit on August 24, 1934, was also the co-founder of the Kashmir Independent Committee in 1963. He was elected secretary-general of the JK Plebiscite Front (PF) in 1965 and co-founded the JK National Liberation Front (NLF) with Maqbool Bhat.

Pakistan PM Nawaz Sharif condoled his death, saying that the sacrifices of Amanullah Khan for Kashmiris would be long remembered.

Khan’s death has been widely mourned in Kashmir and JKLF has announced to offer prayer in absentia for him at Srinagar’s Lal Chowk on Wednesday afternoon.

However, J&K’s social welfare minister and BJP ally Sajad Gani Lone, who is married to Khan’s daughter, has reportedly decided not to attend Khan’s jinaza (funeral prayer), which will take place in Islamabad.