Sindh mourns death of creative writer, journalist Hassan Mansoor

By Jan Khaskehli

Hassan Mansoor, a dedicated working journalist, one of the finest short story writers, the best poet and a columnist died of a heart attack on Thursday evening at his home, family sources said.

Mansoor was working for the daily Dawn as a senior reporter and previously also worked for many other English and Sindhi newspapers and a leading newswire service. Born in July 1965 in the Lyari neighbourhood, in downtown Karachi. he worked with different mainstream newspapers including the Daily Times, The Star (the evening newspaper of the Herald group) and an international newswire service AFP for a long time.

According to his family members, he died of a heart attack while sleeping in his bedroom. When he could not wake up after the usual time, his wife tried to wake up and saw him unconscious. She immediately asked a neighbouring woman for help to take him to a hospital but realized he was not breathing and was dead.

Hassan started his career by joining Awami Awaz, the first computerized Sindhi language daily in 1988 in the Lyari neighbourhood as a computer operator. He was associated with Ms. Attya Dawood, who is a well-known poet and writer. Hassan developed a team of computer operators in the daily, some of them later joined newly launched different newspapers in the Sindhi language in Karachi.

Hassan travelled long during the devastating flood in 2010 and 2011 and developed stories for the international newswire service AFP. He has been an active member and once President of the Karachi Union of Journalists (Barna group) and central leader of the Federal Union of Journalists of Pakistan.

Besides journalism, he was known as a short story writer and poet. He also wrote satiric columns for Sindhi language newspapers, which inspired many readers at that time.

He was an active member of Sindhi Adabi Sangat Karachi, where he used to continue to participate in weekly gatherings with writers. Hassan took part in poetic gatherings at Radio Pakistan Karachi and Pakistan TV, besides doing private programmes in the city, where he inspired senior writers of the time.

Hassan Mansoor belonged to the literary family of old Karachi, as his two brothers Rauf Nizamani and Shakoor Nizamani have been writers in their fields, mainly creative literature. Hassan has collections of short stories and poetry, which were yet to be published.

The sad demise of Hassan has sent a wave of shock among creative writers and journalists across the entire country. Indeed he was remembered for a long time through his creative work, short stories, poetry and journalism work.

He has left a son a daughter and a widow to mourn his death.