Srinagar, Feb. 24: In death as in life, National Conference veteran and Omar Abdullah's uncle Sheikh Nazir Ahmad stayed a rebel.

The party patron passed away quietly today, aged 78, after decades of pre-eminence in Kashmir's most prominent pro-India political party.

But unlike other 'mainstream' Valley politicians, he refused to be associated with anything Indian, so much so that it became a party legend.

Nazir never travelled outside India lest he have to apply for an 'Indian passport'. For most of his life he refused to travel out of the state, and never fought an election or joined the government.

A family source said Nazir, who died of kidney ailments, would shun anything that bore the country's name.

His younger brother Mustafa Kamal said Nazir had left the state only a half-dozen times, always in connection with his treatment.

'He refused to be admitted to the All India Institute of Medical Sciences and went to the Batra Hospital instead.'

Family sources said Farooq had virtually forced Nazir to see doctors in Delhi. 'He made zero private visits to Delhi,' a source said.

Today's top separatists frequently leave the state and fight for passports for foreign travel.

Nazir was a nephew of National Conference founder Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah but was formally adopted by him when he was just seven.

'Farooq (Abdullah) sahib had proposed to him that he be buried at Hazratbal (near Sheikh Abdullah's grave) but he wanted a burial at his ancestral graveyard in Soura,' Kamal said.

Nazir was an enigma. He was staunchly behind the Sheikh when he led a pro-independence agitation for 22 years that culminated in an accord with Indira Gandhi in 1975, bringing him back to power in the state.

But for all his loyalty to party and family, Nazir remained a rebel at heart. 'I'm a Kashmiri, not an Indian,' Nazir, who rarely spoke to the media, told a local newspaper last year.

Nazir and his party usually avoided going public with his views but Omar, as National Conference president in 2008, spilled the beans about an unnamed 'uncle' in a blog.

'I have an uncle who more often than not I disagree with but I admire the conviction he has - he disagrees with what happened in 1947 and subsequent events and so refuses to carry a passport,' he wrote.

'He has never applied for one. For the longest time he never left the state and only travelled by road between Jammu and Srinagar because he refused to travel on 'Indian' Airlines.'

Nazir, therefore, has admirers among the separatists too. Shakeel Bakshi, one of the few separatists who have chosen to remain bachelors because of their commitment to the cause, said many of Nazir's traits deserved praise.

'Several men could not marry, some because of their commitment to aazadi and some because they were castrated by torture.... Whatever the reason in his case, the fact is that he couldn't marry because of his association with the freedom struggle (at one point of time),' Bakshi said.

Kamal said Nazir had been severely tortured by Indian intelligence agencies, which apparently contributed to his bitterness.

'When Sheikh sahib met (Chinese Premier) Chou En Lai in Algeria, he (Nazir) was detained and tortured (in India). He was made to sleep on ice cubes. He got tuberculosis of his kidneys and almost died,' Kamal said.

Coalition govt

The BJP and the People's Democratic Party today formally announced they would jointly form a government in the state that is likely to be sworn in on March 1, PTI reported.