Rich tributes paid to Dr Farooq Haider

Rising Kashmir News

Srinagar, Oct 6: The founder of Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front and prominent Kashmiri liberation leader, Dr Farooq Haider passed away in Rawalpindi, Pakistan on Tuesday.

Dr Farooq Haider, 75, was suffering from lungs disease for the past several years.

Various separatist organizations paid rich tributes to him and offered his funeral prayers in absentia. Jamiat Ahli Hadees president, Maulana Showkat Ahmed Shah led the funeral prayers in absentia.

In a statement issued here, JKLF chairman Muhammad Yaseen Malik said, “It is a great loss to the nation. I would not have been disturbed this much on the death of my own father. We have become orphans now.”

Malik said that Haider’s family offered sacrifices right from 1947 but it never deterred him from fighting for the cause.

Jammu Kashmir Peoples League convened a condolence meeting at party headquarters. The meeting was chaired by senior leader Mukhtar Ahmad Waza and was attended among others by party’s General Secretary Mohammad Ashraf Vaid, Ghulam Qadir Rah, Ghulam Nabi Waseem. “Dr Hyder was a glowing star in Kashmir’s political history and would remain alive in the hearts of Kashmiris for his steadfastness, sincerity and commitment to the freedom struggle,” they said.

In a statement issued from London, supreme head of JKLF Amanullah Khan, S M Afzal, head of Diplomatic Committee Prof Zafar Khan, Secretary Diplomatic Committee, Zafar Sharif and other members expressed grief over Haider’s demise.

The joint statement said that Haider was a prominent figure and had played a key role in the liberation movement of Jammu Kashmir.

“He had rendered great services for the Kashmir cause and would always remain alive in the hearts of Kashmiris for his commitment to the freedom struggle,” he said.

DLP chairman Hashim Qureshi also expressed grief over Haider’s demise.