Former President of Azad Jammu and Kashmir and veteran Kashmiri politician Sardar Abdul Qayyum Khan passed away at the age of 90 at a local hospital in Rawalpindi on Friday after protracted illness. Sardar Qayyum remained Chairman of Kashmir Committee and was among the founders of Kashmiris' struggle for freedom.
He was considered as one of the founders of the Kashmir Liberation Movement and the supreme leader of the Muslim Conference, which is the oldest political party in Azad Jammu and Kashmir region. Sardar Abdul Qayyum was also known as "Mujahid-e-Awal" or "the first warrior," and was believed to have fired the first bullet in the 1947 war of liberation to establish AJK.