Professor Sufi Rasheed dies

Eminent poet and educationist passes away

HARIPUR: Eminent educationist, poet, and writer Prof Sufi Rasheed died on Monday morning in village Sikandarpur.

He has left behind his wife, four sons, and a daughter.

Family sources said that the retired university professor, in his 80s, had a brain tumour for which he underwent a successful operation at Ayub Medical Complex, Abbottabad a month back, but despite the removal of the tumour, his condition did not improve, and he eventually died on Monday.



He was laid to rest in Dora Shah Qabristan in his hometown on Sikandarpur, where a large numbers of poets, writers, teachers and doctors attended his funeral.

Rasheed, known as Sufi Sahib in literary circles, served as an Urdu professor in different colleges in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, and as the principal of Govt Post Graduate College, Abbottabad and Govt Degree College, Havelian before his retirement.

He wrote one anthology of poetry – Sukhan Sarmast – and three Hindko language books, along with hundreds of folk songs, couplets, verses, and literary articles. He taught a number of poets from the region who have become well established in literary circles today.



Poets Riaz Saghar, Prof Waheed Qureshi, Dr Sufian Safi, Prof Qazi Jamil, Tahir Gul, Amjad Minhas and other members of Anjuman Taraqi Pasand Musanifeen were among the people that expressed grief over the death of Sufi Sahib and condoled with his family.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 28^th, 2016.