LAHORE, Sept 29: Known writer and Punjabi Adabi Board Secretary Raja Rasalu died of a cardiac arrest here on Saturday. He was 80.

He was admitted to the Punjab Institute of Cardiology with chest pain two days ago where he breathed his last around 2pm on Saturday. His funeral prayers were offered at the Data Ganj Bakhsh mosque and he was laid to rest at Miani Sahib in the presence of relatives, intellectuals, writers, journalists and others. He is survived by four daughters and two sons.

Born as Muhammad Sadiq in Warbuton, Nankana Sahib, in 1927, Raja Rasalu matriculated from a Sheikhupura school, came to Lahore where he joined the Muslim Students Federation and actively took part in the independence movement.

Later, he joined the police secretariat as clerk from where he retired as assistant superintendent in 1990 after getting a two-year extension.

An avid supporter of the Punjabi language, the Raja was transferred to Multan for five years for supporting the cause for promotion of his mother tongue as a medium of instruction at least at the primary school level.

Spanning over five decades, Rasalu began his career as a contributor to the Punjabi edition of now defunct Urdu daily, Imroze, and in the ‘Punjabi’ magazine of Dr Faqir in the mid-1950s. He also brought out ‘Punjabi Adab’ along with Sufi Ghulam Mustafa Tabassum and Asif Khan.

A collection of verses ‘Tan dard oalay’, two collections of Punjabi folklores ‘Lorian’ and ‘Punjabi Lok Geet’, the latter he compiled with Nasish Kashmiri, earned him fame in the literary circles.

He had been the secretary of the Punjabi Adabi Board for the last five years or so, besides contributing to various magazines. At present, he was writing his autobiography.