Veteran journalist and Sahitya Akademi winner Farooq Nazki dies at 83

SRINAGAR: Veteran broadcaster, poet and Sahitya Akademi winner Mir Mohammad Farooq Nazki died at a hospital in Katra on Tuesday. He was 83.

Nazki, who held several important positions in All India Radio Kashmir and Doordarshan, suffered a heart attack on Monday night, family sources said.

He is survived by two daughters and a son.

He was not keeping well for the past few years and had moved to live with his son in Jammu, the sources said.

In 1995, Nazki was awarded the Sahitya Academi award in Kashmiri for his poetry book Naar Hyutun Kanzal Wanas (Fire in the eyelashes).

Nazki, who was also the media advisor to two chief ministers -- Farooq Abdullah and Omar Abdullah -- will be laid to rest at the Malkha graveyard here on Wednesday, the sources said.

They said the body was being taken from Jammu to Srinagar.

People from various quarters have condoled the passing away of the veteran journalist.

"The passing away of a qalander is not to be mourned; his fulfilling life is to be celebrated. For he has left this station after enriching it in many ways. A societal loss which is a personal bereavement. RIP Mir Mohammed Farooq Nazki (1940 - 2024)," former minister Haseeb Drabu, who is also the son-in-law of the deceased, wrote on X.