ISLAMABAD, June 14: Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF) leader Mohammad Yasin Malik, now in Pakistan as one of nine visiting moderate resistance leaders from Indian-held Kashmir, suffered a stroke on Tuesday and was advised complete rest by his doctor, his party officials said. They said Mr Malik, 37, suffered the stroke after attending a lunch hosted by the Senate Foreign Relations Committee in Islamabad.

The officials quoted the doctor who attended Mr Malik as blaming the illness on fatigue due to hectic engagements since the Kashmiri leaders arrived in Azad Kashmir on June 2 on a historic trip by the newly-introduced Srinagar-Muzaffarabad bus service.

They did not give any details but said the doctors have advised Mr Malik to take complete rest and not to meet visitors.

Mohammad Rafiq Dar, secretary-general of Mr Malik’s JKLF faction in Azad Kashmir and Pakistan, said his leader had cancelled a trip to the Azad Kashmir town of Kotli and was unsure whether he would be able to go on Wednesday to Muzaffarabad as planned.

The delegation is due to return to Srinagar by bus on Thursday.