MUZAFFARABAD: The death of eminent Kashmiri jurist and intellectual in politics retired justice Abdul Majeed Mallick on Tuesday plunged people living on both sides of the Kashmir valley in gloom.

Mr Mallick, who was over 89 years old, had been hospitalised in District Headquarters Hospital Mirpur about two weeks ago due to acute chest infection. Some four days ago, his family had brought him back home where he breathed his last at about 3pm.

Born in a suburban village of Dadyal, Mr Mallick had earned an LLB degree from Lahore and was associated with visionary Kashmiri leader Khurshid Hassan Khurshid from a young age.

When Mr Khurshid launched his Jammu Kashmir Liberation League (JKLL) party in 1962, Mr Mallick was appointed its founding chief organiser. He became the party’s secretary general in 1967 and held this position for the next 11 years.

Since he was also an eminent practising lawyer, he was inducted in the AJK High Court as judge in May 1978 where he became the chief justice in August 1983, an office he held until his retirement in September 1994 on attaining the age of superannuation.

Mr Mallick also headed JKLL from 1996 and 2020.

“So sad to hear about him. May he rest in peace. My heartfelt condolences to his family,” tweeted Nayeema Ahmed Mehjoor, an author, broadcaster and journalist from Srinagar, currently living in London.

Syed Nazir Gillani,chairman of the London-based Jammu Kashmir Council for Human Rights, said in the death of Mr Mallick the state of Jammu and Kashmir had lost a great son.

On Facebook, former ambassador Arif Kamal wrote: “We lost a gem of the unfragmented state of Jammu-Kashmir. The man who held high the flag of our national emancipation.”

Apart from almost all heads of the AJK political parties and cabinet members, sitting and former judges of the AJK’s superior judiciary and legal fraternity also paid glowing tributes to Mr Mallick for his services in the fields of law and politics.

Published in Dawn, March 2nd, 2022