Altaf Hamid Rao;
MIRPUR (AJK): Departure of an illustrious elderly Kashmiri freedom fighter to last and ultimate abode reported here on Saturday – after about 80 years old Raja Amir Ahmed, the closest associate of veteran Kashmiri freedom fighter shaheed Maqbool Butt, died after prolonged illness in local Mian Muhammad town in Mirpur city wee hours on Saturday.
He was laid to rest at the local graveyard in housing sector F/1 in Mirpur city adjacent to the grave of Hashim Qureshi, an eminent Kashmiri freedom fighter and alleged hijacker of Indian airliner ‘Ganga’ which two kashmiri youths of the time including late Ashraf Qureshi and Hashim Qureshi (later repatriated to Srinagar) had reportedly hijacked ‘Ganga’ from New Delhi to Lahore on the last day of December 1970 under a reported India-sponsored pre-planned conspiracy to discontinue the direct air link from West Pakistan to then East Pakistan (now Bangladesh) through over flying the Indian territory.
A large number of people from all walks of life including social and political leaders of various kashmiri political parties of diverse ideologies including all factions of JKLF, JK Plebiscite Front, JK Peoples National Party, JK Libertion League, students, lawyers, workers and employees of government and private institutions offered the funeral prayer of the distinguished hero of the Kashmir freedom struggle.
According to the life profile of the departed Kashmiri freedom fighter Raja Amir Ahmed, gathered by this Correspondent here on Saturday, the late freedom activist was the closest associate of eminent leader of Kashmir freedom fighter and founder leader of the Jammu & Kashmir Plebiscite Front Maqbool Butt Shaheed since about 1960. He was awarded death penalty with shaheed Maqbool Butt besides two of his other Kashmiri freedom fighter associates including Kaaley Khan, resident of Athmuqam Neelam valley of AJK who was served life imprisonment by Judge Ganjoo of a Court of Law in Srinagar in a fake criminal case in 1966. Kaaley Khan had later skipped to AJK where he had died in 1974.
Late Raja Amir Ahmed had escaped, along with Shaheed Maqbool Butt from Srinagar Jail where both of them were imprisoned after having been awarded the capital punishment, according to Azeem Dutt, one of the founder leaders of Jammu Kashmir Plebiscite Front. Dutt, also former President of the JKPF told this Correspondent here on Saturday that late elderly hero of the Kashmir freedom struggle was bed ridden since long in Mirpur ever since he migrated to AJK.
He paid rich tributes to the departed leader for his life time services to the cause of freedom of Jammu & Kashmir state from the long Indian subjugation.
