MUZAFFARABAD: Vete­ran Kashmiri leader Sardar Muhammad Abdul Qayyum Khan was laid to rest in his ancestral Ghaziabad village on Saturday with full honours.

Thousands of people, including heads of political parties and civil and military officials, gathered in the alpine village to pay their last respects to Sardar Qayyum who died on Friday.

Prominent among those who attended the last rites were Railways Minister Khawaja Saad Rafique, AJK PML-N president Raja Farooq Haider, AJK Jamaat-i-Islami chief Abdul Rashid Turabi and Jammu Kashmir Peoples Party president Sardar Khalid Ibrahim Khan.

Given the continuing influx of mourners, funeral prayers were offered five times, led by the deceased leader’s son Sardar Attique Ahmed Khan, Sahibzada Mohammad Akram Shah, Hafiz Mohammad Hamid Raza, Maulana Mohammad Naeem and Maulana Moham­mad Zubair Naqshbandi.

The coffin, draped with the flags of AJK and Pakistan, was placed in an ambulance. Military personnel lowered the coffin into the grave amid the firing of a volley salute.

An army officer laid floral wreaths on the grave on behalf of Chief of Army Staff Gen Raheel Sharif and the corps commander and general officer commanding concerned. A contingent of the AJK police presented a guard of honour.

Published in Dawn, July 12th, 2015

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