Jammu and Kashmir National Panthers Party founder Bhim Singh passes away

Arjun Sharma

Jammu, May 31

Prof Bhim Singh (80), founder of the Jammu and Kashmir National Panthers Party (JKNPP), breathed his last at Government Medical College and Hospital, Jammu, today morning. Hailing from Bhugterian village in Udhampur, he was not well for the past sometime.

PM pays tribute

He was very well read and scholarly. I will always recall my interactions with him. Saddened by his demise. Condolences to his family. Narendra Modi, PM

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Soon after the news spread, politicians and his supporters in large numbers thronged the area. A notable human rights activist and a critic of the present dispensation, Singh is survived by his wife Jay Mala and son Ankit Love, who lives in London, United Kingdom.

He founded the JKNPP along with his wife in 1982.

AAP leader Balwant Singh Mankotia, who had a long association with the deceased, said the body had been kept at the government accommodation in Gandhi Nagar so that his friends and family can pay homage to him. He will be cremated tomorrow, he added.

Condolences poured in from different quarters. Prime Minister Narendra Modi tweeted, “Prof Bhim Singh Ji will be remembered as a grassroots leader who devoted his life for the welfare of Jammu and Kashmir. He was very well read and scholarly. I will always recall my interactions with him… Om Shanti.”

Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha said he was deeply saddened to learn about the passing away of the leader. National Conference leader Omar Abdullah stated on Twitter, “…My earliest memories of Bhim Singh go all the way back to 1984 when he joined with my father to protest the unconstitutional dismissal of the NC government.”

Union Minister Jitendra Singh said, “Bhim Singh was probably the first leading political activist of J&K after Independence.”

CPM leader MY Tarigami said, “At a time when polarisation and divisiveness has dominated the political arena, he stood for communal harmony and fought against the divisive forces.”

In the last few weeks, the JKNPP has witnessed infighting after which senior leaders, including Harsh Dev Singh, Yash Pal Kundal and Balwant Singh Mankotia, joined AAP. Bhim Singh authored a book named ‘Unbelievable-Delhi to Islamabad’ in which he, as a senior advocate of the Supreme Court, chronicled his efforts in securing the release of over 200 Pakistani prisoners from Indian jails.

While pursuing his masters’ degree in law from the University of London in 1971, Singh was elected as secretary of the varsity.

He contested election for the Udhampur Lok Sabha seat in 1988 and faced defeat from the Congress candidate. Alleging foul play, he went on a hunger strike against the Election Commission. Later, the J&K High Court delivered the judgment in his favour four years later, but by then, the session of Parliament had already been dissolved.

During the Assembly elections in 2002, Panthers Party won four seats and joined the Congress-PDP government in the erstwhile state.

Singh is known to have toured over 125 countries on bike in late 1960s. Former Iraq president Saddam Hussein had named him as one of his lawyers to plead his case after he was caught by the US forces. He was friends with stalwarts such as Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, Cuban revolutionary Fidel Castro, Saddam Hussein and Libya’s dictator Muammar Gaddafi.

Noted activist

Bhim Singh provided legal aid to over 200 people from Pakistan and Afghanistan who had been imprisoned for decades.

Political journey

A Congress leader, he launched Panthers Party in 1982. In 1988, he contested for the Udhampur Lok Sabha seat but lost to the Congress. In 2002, the JKNPP won four seats and joined the PDP-Congress government.

Saddam, Arafat were among his friends

• Bhim Singh was friends with stalwarts such as Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, Cuban revolutionary Fidel Castro, Iraq President Saddam Hussein and Libya’s dictator Muammar Gaddafi.
• After his arrest, Saddam Hussein had named Bhim Singh as one of his lawyers to plead his case, but the latter wasn’t allowed by the US to land in Baghdad.