Former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister and president of the Awami National Conference Ghulam Mohammed Shah died in Srinagar on Tuesday. He was 87.
Shah complained of severe chest pain and was rushed to the Sher-e-Kashmir Institute of Medical Sciences (SKIMS) in Srinagar in the afternoon, according to family sources.
“He had suffered a massive cardiac arrest and could not be resuscitated," a doctor at the SKIMS said.
Popularly known as Gul Shah, he became the chief minister of the state in 1984 when 18 National Conference legislators defected from the party and brought down the then government of Shah's brother-in-law Farooq Abdullah.
Shah was then supported by the Congress. He later floated the Awami National Conference (ANC) that failed to win a single seat in recently concluded assembly elections.
Married to Khalida, the eldest daughter of the legendary Kashmiri leader and founder of the National Conference, Sheikh Mohammed Abdullah, Shah was known as an able administrator though often criticised for being arrogant.
He was one of the senior most leaders of the state who had fought alongside his father-in-law against the autocratic Dogra rule in the state.