Srinagar, Oct 25: Renowned Shia scholar, senior separatist leader and a key figure of erstwhile Muslim United Front (MUF), Moulana Muhammad Abbas Hussain Ansari passed away after a long illness here in Kashmir capital Srinagar on Tuesday. He was 86.

Ansari was a renowned Shia scholar and an eminent political leader. He also remained the Chairman of the united ‘All Parties Hurriyat Conference – the position held by likes like the late Syed Ali Geelani, Molvi Muhammad Umar Farooq, and Professor Abdul Gani Bhat.

As per sources from his family, Ansari was not keeping well for long and today he breathed his last at his residence in Nawakadal area of Srinagar city.

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Being a Shia religious leader, Ansari enjoyed a wide following in Kashmir valley. He also co-founded the outfit called Jammu & Kashmir Ittihadul Muslimeen.

Ansari was born on 18 August 1936, in Srinagar to the influential Ansari family who after his preliminary education at a local school in Srinagar, graduated from the Oriental College in Srinagar.

In 1950, he left for further studies to Lucknow, then the centre of Islamic theological education in India. After spending years in Lucknow’s Sultanul Madaris, he undertook higher studies in Najaf, Iraq, commencing in 1954.

He majored in Arabic literature, Philosophy, Hadith and Tafseer, Islamic Jurisprudence and Political Science. After eight years of study in Iraq, he returned to Kashmir and launched a religio-political monthly magazine named “Safeena”.

Throughout his life, he opposed the policies and political ideology of mainstream leaders in Kashmir, was arrested several times under National Security Act. He vehemently opposed the political ideology of late Sheikh Muhammad Abdullah.

Representative of Ayatollah Khamenei in India, Ayatollah Mehdi Mehdavipur in a press note condoled the Ulemas of Kashmir, teachers and students of the theology college, his followers and especially his son Moulana Masroor Abass Ansari and family members on the sad demise of Abass Ansari. (with inputs from KNT)