KARACHI: Ajmal Dehlvi, veteran journalist and editor of Urdu daily Amn, died on Friday after a protracted illness. He was 87.

His funeral prayer was offered at Rehman Masjid in Nazimabad and he was laid to rest at the Muhammad Shah graveyard in North Karachi.

Besides his family and relatives, a large number of journalists, politicians and members of civil society attended his last rites.

He is survived by three daughters.

Ajmal Dehlvi was also elected as a member of the Senate from the platform of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement.

Born on August 14, 1936 in Delhi he migrated to Pakistan with his grandfather when he was in middle school. Graduated from the City College in 1956, he got his first job in Muslim. He, along with other journalists, was dismissed from service in 1972 due to a strike in the newspaper.

After being dismissed from the job, he along with all dismissed employees started their own newspaper Amn and became its news editor. After the death of Editor Afzal Siddiqui, he took his place.

During his journalist career, he remained close to former prime minister Benazir Bhutto and then MQM supremo Altaf Hussain.