SRINAGAR: Kashmir’s senior journalist, poet and essayist writer, Ghulam Nabi Khayal is no more. He was around 80.
Khayal has authored more than 30 books and has worked for almost every major newspaper in India including the Illustrated Weekly of India, India Today, The Associated Press and various broadcast radio stations including Voice of America.
Reports suggest that Khayal who lived in Rawalpora Housing Colony passed away in the middle of the night. He is survived by wife, a daughter and two sons.
In October 2015, Khayal returned his Sahitya Academy award – which was bestowed upon him in 1975, in protest against the mistreatment of minorities in India. Khayal had bagged the award for his book Gashik Minaar (Luminaries) in 1975.
Khayal was arrested in 1958 as a newscaster in the Kashmir conspiracy case. He shot to prominence later for his famous poem, Yeh Chuh Choun Watan, Yeh Chuh Meoun Watan, which he read for the first time in a July 13 function in Srinagar.
Khayal is survived by two sons, who do work overseas.
His funeral prayers are being offered right now, reports said.
