LARKANA, April 28: The former Naib Amir of the Jamaat-i- Islami, Maulana Jan Mohammad Abbasi, passed away at his Karachi residence on Monday. He was 78.

His body will be brought here for burial early Tuesday morning, said Afzal Abbasi, brother of the late JI leader.

He breathed his last during a dialysis session.Maulana Abbasi was born in 1925 in Bero Chandio village, some seven kilometres off here.

He began his political career, after securing first class first in his graduation in Arabic, and joined the Jamaat-i- Islami.

Initially, Maulana Abbasi was elected to the office of JI Amir Larkana district, in which capacity he served between 1954 and 1956.

In 1964, he was again made the JI’s Amir of the defunct Khairpur division and later became a member of the Jamaat’s Majlis-i-Shoora.

He also served as the chairman of the Karambagh union council between 1960 and 1971 and simultaneously served as a member of the district council between 1960 and 1966.

He was arrested in January, 1964, after the military regime of Gen Ayub Khan banned the JI.

After becoming the Amir of the JI’s Sindh chapter in 1970, Maulana Abbasi met the leader of the Islamic Revolution in Iran, Ayatollah Khomeini, in 1979 in Qom. He was sent behind bars again in 1977.

Maulana Abbasi became prominent after he was allegedly kidnapped from Larkana while filing papers to contest elections against the late Zulfikar Ali Bhutto.

The late JI leader twice ran for the post of Amir of the Jamaat but could not muster enough votes in both the attempts.

He was shifted to Karachi from Larkana after suffering from major kidney problems, family sources said.

After hearing about the news of his death, hundreds of party workers and mourners gathered at his residence here.