Amanullah Khan, co-founder of the secessionist organisation Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front, died on Tuesday in Rawalpindi, Pakistan, where he had lived for three decades, reported PTI. The 80-year-old was suffering from a lung disease and was hospitalised three weeks ago, the report said.

The JKLF led a violent campaign for Kashmir's independence. Khan was accused of hijacking an Indian Airlines plane in 1971 and killing Indian diplomat Ravindra Mhatre in Birmingham in 1984. He was deported to Pakistan in 1986 from the UK.

Khan had set up the JKLF in 1977, but lost prominence after militant groups established themselves in Kashmir in the late '80s. Khan is survived by his only daughter Asma, who is married to a Kashmiri separatist leader, Sajjad Ghani Lone.