Srinagar, March 21 -- Hundreds of people, including several leaders, gathered for Khan's last rites in Kangan where he was laid to rest.

The party leaders in J&K saw him as the best chance to make inroads into the Valley. However, his death marked an end of that hope, leaving BJP's future in the region somehow uncertain, according to many political observers.

Hailing from Gurez valley's Tulail area, Khan's political journey saw him shift affiliations but never step away from electoral battles. He won as an Independent from Gurez in 1996, later contested assembly elections unsuccessfully on a Congress ticket in 2008 and 2014, and eventually joined the BJP in 2020.

When Assembly elections were held in J&K last year after a decade, BJP sa...