Veteran ANP leader Ajmal Khattak dead - India News and Travel Times Provides India-centric and other News and Features

Mohammad Ajmal Khattak, a household name in Pakhtun society because of his contribution to literature and politics died in Nowshera on Sunday night after protracted illness. He was 85. Khattak served as senator and MNA but lived in his tiny village home in his native Akora Khattak village till his death. His funeral will he be held at the Akora Khattak Eidgah on Monday afternoon. An author of several books of poetry and prose in Pashto and Urdu, Khattak was born on September 15, 1926, in Akora Khattak. He had been suffering from a number of ailments for a couple of years and was occasionally hospitalised, the Dawn reports. He twice served as the president of the Awami National Party and became the party's general secretary in 1973. He received the Kamal-i-Fun Award in 2008. ANP chief Asfandyar Wali Khan has expressed grief over the death of Khattak and announced three-day mourning by the party.