Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF) chairman, Muhammad Yasin Malik on Tuesday paid tributes to noted physician Dr Qazi Meraj Ud din Munshi who passed away today.

Munshi was laid to rest in his ancestral graveyard at Malakhah.

Thousands of people including entire JKLF leadership, resistance leaders, activists, doctors, lawyers, intellectuals and people from other walks of life participated in his funeral and burial, JKLF spokesman said.

According to the statement issued here, the JKLF spokesman said that Dr Munshi was ill from last some days and was admitted at SKIMS where he breathed his last.

After hearing the news of his demise last late night, Malik as per the statement reached his residence at Nigeen Srinagar.

Malik said that “his demise has marked an end to a golden page of our resistance and freedom struggle.”

Terming Dr Munshi as ‘a most humble soul, a selfless Mujahid, an ideologue, a great freedom fighter, a great patriot, an unparallel intellectual and a symbol of struggle and sacrifices’, Malik said, “His passing away has actually orphaned us all as we all will always miss his fatherly affection.”

He said that Dr Munshi was wedded with freedom struggle from his school and college days. “In 1990, when Kashmiris led by JKLF, started a peoples revolution, Dr Munshi joined it and along with martyr doctor Abdul Ahad Guru, martyr professor Abdul Ahad wani, Professor Abdul Rehaman Wani, late Architect Jeelani and others and provided a selfless intellectual backing to people’s revolution.”

He said that the Dr himself joined this struggle like a youth and defended it with all passion and enthusiasm.

“He had to bear torture, interrogations and incarcerations during that time but never budged before tyranny and oppression. He had to live in exile for nine years but the love for this soil brought him back where till his last breath he stood firm with his ideology and resistance,” he said.

Malik said that from being one the founders of Jhelum Valley Medical College and Hamid blood bank, Dr Munshi never shunned his philanthropy and worked hard for the poor and destitute.

“Today we see people who after their retirement from government services seek patronage of rulers and work for oppression, but late Doctor Munshi left his job and sacrificed everything and lived satisfied with that,” he said, adding that “today when Doctor has left for heavenly abode, we all pray for his heavenly abode and patience to his bereaved family.”

Meanwhile, spokesman said that the funeral prayers in absentia were held at many places in Azad Kashmir, Pakistan and other world capitals for late Doctor Meraj ud din.

“Funeral prayers in absentia were held at Kotli, RawalPindi, Saudi Arabia and UAE. People remembered the sacrifices and struggle of late doctor and expressed gratitude towards him. In Rawalpindi, the funeral in absentia was led by former prime minster of Azad Kashmir Sardar Ateeq Ahmad Khan,” he said.

Others who participated in the funeral included Khwaja Ghulam Ahmed Butt, M. Rafiq Dar, Saleem Haroon, Manzoor A. Chishti, Sardar Anwar, Zahid Hussain, Saleem Butt, Mirza Khursheed, Manzoor A. Khan, Adv. Touseef Jarral, M. Afzal Baig, Jaleel Fareed, Malik Raheem, Sardar Hanief and others. Jinaza was also attended by APHC leaders namely Mehmood A. Sagar, Syed Faiz Naqshbandi, Yousuf Naseem, Abdul Majeed Mir, Sheikh M. Yaqoob, Aijaz A. Rehmani, Mian Muzaffar Ahmed, M. Sultan and Fahdullah Khateeb.

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