Sheikh Nazir dies at 78

Azhar Qadri

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Tribune News Service

Srinagar, February 24

Sheikh Nazir Ahmed, uncle of former Chief Minister Omar Abdullah, died this morning at the age of 78. He had been suffering from a lengthy illness and brief hospitalisation in Jammu.

Nazir died at 5:17 am at the Super-Specialty Hospital in Jammu. He was admitted there on Monday after his renal condition deteriorated.

He underwent an emergency dialysis, but remained critical. NC working president Omar was the first to announce Nazir’s death.

He said his uncle’s burial would take place at the family’s ancestral graveyard at Soura in Srinagar “as per his wishes”. “My uncle and NC stalwart Nazir passed away in the early hours this morning in Jammu after a brief hospitalisation,” he wrote on Twitter.

Nazir had served as the powerful NC general secretary through three decades and oversaw the rebuilding of the party in years of militant onslaught.

A member of the Abdullah family, Nazir’s kin included former Chief Ministers Sheikh Abdullah, Farooq Abdullah, Ghulam Mohammad Shah and Omar Abdullah.

Nazir was elevated to the post of NC patron in 2014 following a major reshuffle in the party after its rout in the parliamentary elections.

Born in 1937, Nazir was a son of Sheikh Abdullah’s elder brother Sheikh Mohammad Maqbool. Nazir had studied law and was one of last surviving confidantes of Abdullah.

Nazir’s political journey had begun with the Plebiscite Front, which struggled for implementation of the UN resolution calling for a referendum in J&K.