KARACHI: Hasan Mansoor, a senior reporter at Dawn, passed away on Thursday. He was 54.

His family sources said Hasan suffered a heart attack which proved fatal.

Survived by a widow, a son and a daughter, Hasan remained associated with Dawn twice. He first joined the newspaper in 2006 and left for a foreign wire service in 2008 and then returned to Dawn in 2013 and remained serving the paper till the last day of his life.

Hasan Mansoor had over three decades of experience in journalism during which he served Sindhi newspaper Awami Awaz, The Star, The Nation, Daily Times and AFP. He was also known as a short-story writer in literary circles.

He completed his master’s in mathematics from the University of Karachi in the late 1980s, but being an avid reader, writer and a person with keen interest in history, he opted for journalism as a profession.

His friend and journalist Jan Khaskheli recalled Hasan’s journalistic career as beginning with Sindhi newspaper Awami Awaz in 1988, for which he used to write a weekly satirical column. In some of his short stories, he focused on human tragedy of the violence in Karachi. He used to say, Mr Khaskheli recalled, that if his short stories were compiled, they were so many that they would fill at least three volumes.

A periodical in India also published some of his short stories in Hindi.

Condolence messages poured in over his sudden death from different segments of society, lauding his professional role as a journalist and remembering him as a polite and jovial person.

Sindh Governor Imran Ismail, PPP head Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari, Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah, Sindh PPP president Nisar Khuhro, Jamaat-i-Islami Karachi chief Hafiz Naeem-ur-Rahman, Sindh IGP Mushtaq Mahar and leaders of different political parties expressed their sorrow over Mr Mansoor’s death in their condolence messages to the grieving family.

Karachi Press Club president Imtiaz Khan Faran and secretary Arman Sabir in a joint statement expressed their shock over his death and prayed for the departed soul. His funeral prayers will be held after Friday prayers (1.15pm) at Masjid-i-Khizra in Saddar while the burial is due to take place at Mewashah graveyard.

Published in Dawn, March 6th, 2020