Veteran pro-Independence leader and co-founder of Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF) breathed his last on Tuesday morning at a hospital in Rawalpindi city of Pakistan where he was being treated for pneumonia from last many days. He was 87.Born on August 24, 1931 at Astore in Gilgit, Amanullah Khan’s father hailed from Hyhama village of Kupwara in north Kashmir. His mother hailed from Astore and domestic circumstances compelled Amanullah to be sent to Kashmir Valley where he received his basic education but had to migrate to Pakistan (Karachi) in 1952.Amanullah Khan, who is the father-in-law of State Cabinet Minister Sajjad Gani Lone, was a staunch supporter of Independent Kashmir and right from 1947 he took active part in resistance struggle. He co-founded JKLF with Muhammad Maqbool Bhat.
JKLF chairman, Yasin Malik, described Amanullah Khan a “pioneer of Jammu Kashmir freedom struggle, herald of independent Jammu Kashmir, glowing example of persistence, great politician, intellectual, diplomat and leader”. He said Amanullah from his youth till the time of his death remained steadfast in resistance movement and despite various hardships never budged or compromised on his principles.His funeral prayers will be held at Liyaqat Bagh Rawalpindi tomorrow at 11: 00 a.m. and he will be buried at Gilgit (Eidgah). A JKLF spokesman said the funeral prayers in absentia for the deceased leader will also be held at Lal Chowk Srinagar tomorrow on 27th April 2016 at 2:00 pm. (GNS)
Who was Amanullah Khan?
Born on August 24, 1931 at Astore in Gilgit, Amanullah Khan’s father hailed from Hyhama village of Kupwara in north Kashmir. His mother hailed from Astore and domestic circumstances compelled Amanullah to be sent to Kashmir Valley where he received his basic education but had to migrate to Pakistan (Karachi) in 1952.Amanullah Khan is perhaps the only political figure against whom India has got International Warrants of Arrest (Red Notice) issued by Interpol and Pakistan has confiscated his passport, both doing so in order to keep him from political activities abroad to project his independence ideology, a JKLF leader said. “As far back as in 1973, Mr Amanullah Khan was offered Presidentship of Pakistan People’s Party in Gilgit Baltistan which would entitle him to become areas first Chief Minister but he flatly refused saying that, that was against his political ideology,” he added.
A JKLF spokesman while profiling Khan said: “A clear ideology of independent Kashmir developed in his mind as a result of his study of the history of Kashmir, of Kashmir Issue, of the contemporary and past freedom movements the world-over, and of the mal-treatment Kashmir, Kashmiris and Kashmir issue had received from India and to some extent from Pakistan also since 1947. All this resulted in his becoming a staunch exponent of reunification and complete independence of Jammu Kashmir State.”According to GNS, in 1962, Amanullah Khan, when he still was a student of LLB, started monthly ‘Voice of Kashmir’ which strongly preached the ideology of independent Kashmir. Amanullah Khan along with late G.M. Lone, then a member of Azad Kashmir State Council, played key role in establishment of 1963 of Kashmir Independence Committee, perhaps the first pro-independence Kashmiri organization and worked as its first de-facto secretary before it was de-organized couple of years later for many reasons.
As co-founder and Secretary General of Jammu Kashmir Plebiscite Front (for ‘Azad’ Kashmir and Pakistan) formed in April 1965 and of its two wings: JKNLF and Kashmir Committee for Afro-Asian Peoples Solidarity, Amanullah Khan and JKPF ‘contributed’ a lot through literature, rallies, press conferences, demonstrations etc. towards projection and expansion of independence ideology up to 1977.As two very close friends for almost 24 years and two of the co-founders of Jammu Kashmir Plebiscite Front (JKPF) and Jammu Kashmir National Liberation Front (JKNLF), Maqbool Butt and Amanullah Khan “played a pivotal role in promoting the ideology for reunification and complete independence of Jammu Kashmir State as it stood on August 14, 1947 and the concept of armed freedom struggle for Kashmir”.
“Maqbool Butt was sent to gallows by India after keeping him behind the bars for over 10 years whereas he remained in Pakistan’s prisons for over two years. In both cases his ‘crime’ was his struggle for his national emancipation,” the JKLF spokesman said.According to JKLF, Amanullah Khan is the only Kashmiri who has been imprisoned abroad (England 16 months, Belgium 72 days and New York (UN Lockup for one day) as well as in Kashmir and Pakistan (Handwara, Gilgit, Azad Kashmir, Rawalpindi, Karachi and Lahore (in the torture centre called Shahi Qilla Lahore) for his activities related to liberation of Kashmir and often subjected to “unbearable mental and physical torture during detention”. (GNS)