Abdullah, Sheikh Muhammad [key], 1905–82, nationalist leader in Kashmir, known as the Lion of Kashmir. He became active in political reform while a student at Lahore Univ. and was frequently imprisoned from 1931 for urging self-rule for Kashmir, a region now divided between India and Pakistan. He was active in the movement for India's independence and then became prime minister of the Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir when independence was achieved in 1947. After denouncing (1953) India's treatment of Kashmir, he was removed as prime minister and generally kept in preventive detention by the Indian government, although he was allowed to play a more active role in the early 1970s.
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