PESHAWAR: Senior journalist Rahimullah Yousafzai breathed his last after protracted illness here. He was 66.

His funeral will be held at his ancestral village Inzargai, near Babuzai Interchange on Swat Expressway today (Friday) at 11am.

His son Arshid Yousafzai, who is also a journalist, confirmed that Mr Yousafzai had expired after fighting cancer for over 15 months.

He was the resident editor of The News International at Peshawar and was also a correspondent of BBC Urdu and Pashto service in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

Mr Yousafzai, a prominent journalist and political and security analyst, was considered an authority on Afghanistan, Taliban, Al-Qaeda and Pakistan’s erstwhile tribal areas.

The deceased had been covering the decades old Afghan conflict since the invasion of Soviet Union in 1979. It was to his credit to interview Taliban’s chief late Mullah Omar and Al-Qaeda head Osama Bin Laden twice.

The deceased was born in 1954. He was awarded Sitar-i-Imtiaz by the government and had received the award from the president on March 23, 2010.

Meanwhile, Prime Minister Imran Khan through his official social media account on Twitter condoled the death of Mr Yousufzai and termed him the country’s “most respectable journalist.”

“Saddened to learn of Rahimullah Yousafzai’s passing. He was one of the Pakistan’s most respectable journalists. He was an opinion maker because his columns were well researched. My condolences and prayers go to the family,” tweeted Mr Khan.

In a condolence message, Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists president Shahzada Zulfiqar and secretary general Nasir Zaidi also expressed shock over the death of Mr Yousufzai.

Published in Dawn, September 10th, 2021