By Sahil Manzoor Bhatti

Awal. He came up to us, offered a firm but gentle handshake, and spoke warmly about our small efforts to serve the community.

In that moment, he seemed larger than the many titles he carried: poet, broadcaster, journalist, dramatist.

He was both unassuming and profound, as if all the work of his life distilled into that single gesture.

That memory of grace and humility has stayed with me ever since.

Zahid Mukhtar passed away early Thursday morning at his home in Nai Basti, Anantnag, at the age of 69, after a year-long struggle with neurological ailments.

His passing closes a chapter on a life that moved seamlessly between literature, culture, and media.

Born in South Kashmir in 1956 to Haji Sana Ullah Qasid, Mukhtar showed an early love for words.

Poetry came first, but prose soon followed.

In 1976, he published his first short story, Chout (Injury). Over nearly five decades, he created works in both Urdu and Kashmiri, including poetry collections like Ibtida (The Beginning), Sulagtay Chinar (Blazing Chinars), and Timbri Halm (A Hem Filled with Sparks), and short story compilations such as Jhelum ka Teesra Kinara (Jhelum's Third Bank) and Suraj ka Pehla Andhera (The First Darkness of the Sun).

Among his stories, Pul-e-Sirat (The Bridge of Judgment Day) stands out.

It portrays the suffering of Kashmiris subjected to identification parades and constant scrutiny, drawing a haunting parallel to the eschatological bridge in Islamic belief.

Mukhtar had a rare gift: blending social critique, spiritual metaphor, and human emotion into fiction that resonates long after the last page is read.

His influence went far beyond the written word.

For many years, he was a familiar face and voice on Doordarshan Kashmir's Good Morning Kashmir, anchoring with warmth and wisdom.

He wrote over a hundred plays for television and radio, acted, produced, and edited. His early 1990s journalism venture, Al-Mukhtar, was cut short by political unrest, but he remained a guiding presence in the valley's literary circles through his editorship of Lafz ba Lafz (Word by Word).

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