Bhopal gas tragedy activist Abdul Jabbar dies at 62

BHOPAL: Social activist Abdul Jabbar, who worked tirelessly for the victims and survivors of the 1984 Bhopal Gas Tragedy, died of a cardiac arrest at a private hospital here on Thursday night, family sources said on Friday. He was 62.

Jabbar is survived by his wife and three children.

Fondly known as ‘Jabbar bhai’, the activist was ailing and being treated for high blood sugar and foot infection for the last couple of months, a source from the family said.

Jabbar lived just 2km from the now abandoned Union Carbide plant, where, in December 1984, a deadly gas leak, killing thousands of people and rendering more than one lakh others disabled.

On the fateful night, Jabbar rushed his neighbours and other victims from the locality to hospitals without regard for his own safety, an acquaintance recalled.

Jabbar, who was himself a survivor of the world’s worst industrial disaster, later emerged as one of the leading figures who organised several protests, seeking compensation for the gas tragedy victims’ kin and survivors.

In 1987, the activist set up the Bhopal Gas Peedith Mahila Udyog Sanghathan, one of the organisations that has been championing the cause of the gas tragedy victims and survivors for the last 30 years.

Meanwhile, Madhya Pradesh chief minister Kamal Nath took to Twitter to condole the activist’s death.

“In the death of Jabbar, we have lost a fighter and dedicated social worker,” he tweeted