Kashmiri leader Prof Nazir Ahmed Shawl passes away in London

ISLAMABAD: Prominent Kashmiri leader and a prominent figure in the Kashmir liberation movement, Professor Nazir Ahmed Shawl, passed away in London after a brief illness. He was 77. According to Kashmir Media Service, Professor Nazir Ahmed Shawl was admitted to a hospital in London due to a serious illness on December 23.

Professor Shawl was suffering from a chest infection and kidney problems. He breathed his last today. He was a multilingual person, an educationist, an author and poet, and a human rights defender.

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Professor Shawl was born in Baramulla, a town in Indian-occupied Jammu and Kashmir, on October 13, 1946. He received his education from Baramulla. He graduated in sciences and post-graduated in botany from Kashmir University, specialising in ecology, and post-graduated in education from the Himachal Pradesh University, India.

He undertook various trainings at NCERT (India’s National Council of Educational Research and Training) in Delhi and SCERT (State Council for Educational Research and Training) in Jaipur, India, and specialized in curriculum development.

He started his professional work at St. Joseph’s Institute, Baramulla, and later joined the government education department, having contributed to educational theory and practices through different research projects in association with SCERT and UNICEF, including developing experimental curricula, particularly in environmental studies.

Professor Shawl held different positions in his professional career, including being a professor and researcher in botany, field advisor in sciences, coordinator of UNICEF-assisted project PECR, member of the board of Undergraduate Studies in Botany at the University of Kashmir, and Chief Test Administrator of Banking Personnel Selection (IBPS-Bombay).

Professor Shawl migrated to Pakistan in 1991 and started working for the Kashmir cause. He remained a representative of veteran Kashmiri leader Syed Ali Gilani for some time in the APHC-AJK chapter. He worked as Chief Editor of the Kashmir Mirror, Chief Editor of SANA News (now SABAH), and Chief Editor of the news agency Kashmir Press International.

Later, he shifted to the UK in 2004 and headed the Kashmir Centre in London. He has been championing the Kashmir cause and highlighting the Kashmir dispute at the international level for the last three decades.

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Special Assistant to the Prime Minister Mushaal Hussien Mulick has expressed deep sorrow over the sad demise of Professor Shawl.

Mushaal Mulick said Professor Shawl, a multilingual individual, educator, poet, and human rights advocate, was a true pioneer in the struggle for the self-determination rights of the people of Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK). She said that Nazir’s death is a significant loss to the global voice of the Kashmir cause.

The All Parties Hurriyat Conference (APHC) leaders also paid glowing tributes to Professor Shawl. They said that Professor Shawl will be remembered for his commitment to the Kashmiris’ just cause of right to self-determination.

The APHC-AJK chapter Convener, Mahmood Ahmed Saghar, and other leaders including Sheikh Abdul Maten, Imtiaz Wani and Mushtaq Ahmed Butt, in their statements issued in Islamabad also expressed deep grief over the death of Professor Nazir Ahmad Shawl. – INP