CHAKWAL: Leader of Marxist movement in Pakistan comrade Dr Yasrab Tanvir Gondal, better known as Lal Khan, was laid to rest in his native Bhoun village on Saturday.

Hundreds of people including PPP leader Chaudhry Manzoor Ahmed, journalist Imtiaz Gondal, Qazi Saeed, singer Jawad Ahmed, labour party leader Farooq Tariq and many women attended his funeral.

The villagers were left stunned when they saw women carrying the coffin along with men.

Born in 1956, Lal Khan was named Yasrab Tanvir Gondal.

He started his political activism when he was a student of MBBS at Nishtar Medical College in Multan. He contested election of student union in 1978 against Islami Jamiat-i-Talaba and won.

Lal Khan remained editor of Tabqati Jaddujahad magazine and also of Asian Marxist Review. He authored more than a dozen books.

A chain-smoker, he was diagnosed with lung cancer one-and-a-half years ago and breathed his last on February 21.

Published in Dawn, February 23rd, 2020