Examiner Bureau | Srinagar:
Senior National Conference (NC) leader and former Jammu and Kashmir minister Sheikh Mustafa Kamal passed away on Tuesday after a prolonged illness. He was 83.
Family sources said Kamal breathed his last at a private hospital in Srinagar. He will be laid to rest at the Bominsar graveyard in Sonwar, Srinagar.
A medical doctor by profession, Sheikh Mustafa Kamal was the younger son of National Conference founder Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah and Begum Akbar Jehan Abdullah. He was the younger brother of NC president and former Chief Minister Dr Farooq Abdullah and the uncle of Chief Minister Omar Abdullah.
In a post on X, Chief Minister Omar Abdullah said his uncle had been unwell for several months and his condition had deteriorated over the past four days. He said Kamal “put up a brave fight” before passing away at Paras Hospital in Srinagar.
Although trained in medicine, Kamal dedicated most of his professional life to politics. He joined the National Conference in the early 1980s and became a member of the erstwhile Jammu and Kashmir Legislative Council in 1983.
He was elected to the Jammu and Kashmir Legislative Assembly from the Gulmarg constituency in 1987 and represented the constituency until 2002.
During his political career, Kamal served as a Cabinet minister in successive National Conference governments formed in 1983, 1987 and 1996, handling several important portfolios. He later emerged as one of the party’s principal organisational leaders and served as Additional General Secretary of the National Conference, remaining actively involved in party affairs even after stepping away from electoral politics.
Known for his unwavering loyalty to the National Conference, Kamal was among the party’s most outspoken leaders on issues concerning Jammu and Kashmir and frequently articulated its political position during periods of significant change.
Sheikh Mustafa Kamal is survived by his family and leaves behind a political legacy spanning more than four decades. As a physician-turned-politician, Cabinet minister and senior National Conference leader, he remained a prominent figure in Jammu and Kashmir’s political landscape.
