[1] Khan's JKLF initiated the ongoing armed insurgency in Indian-administered Kashmir with backing from Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence, which lasted until Pakistan dropped its support of secular Kashmiri separatists in favour of pro-Pakistan Islamist groups, such as the Hizbul Mujahideen.

[2] In 1994, the JKLF in the Kashmir Valley, under the leadership of Yasin Malik, renounced militancy in favour of a political struggle.

Amanullah Khan was born on 24 August 1934 in the hamlet of Pari Shang in the Astore District of the princely state of Jammu and Kashmir (present day Gilgit-Baltistan).

Finally, he enrolled in the Sindh Madressatul Islam University in Karachi and graduated in 1957, obtaining a degree in law in 1962.

[7][8] By 1962, Amanullah Khan became an advocate of reunification of the former princely state of Jammu and Kashmir and complete independence from both India and Pakistan.

Journalist Praveen Swami states that the organisation did not have enough funds and infrastructure, or support from other sources, to make an impact inside Indian Kashmir.

[13] Paul Staniland adds that "State repression" in the Indian Kashmir also played a key role.

[14] In the mid-1970s, with the organisation having fallen apart and the key leaders in jail, Amanullah Khan left Pakistan for the United Kingdom (UK).

JKLF opened branches in various countries in Europe and the Middle East as well as the US, and held well-attended conventions in Birmingham in 1981 and Luton in 1982.

However, on 3 February 1984, members of the National Liberation Army kidnapped the Indian diplomat Ravindra Mhatre in Birmingham and demanded the release of Maqbool Bhat as ransom.

Unfortunately, the kidnappers panicked at the possibility of a police raid and, allegedly upon Amanullah Khan's instructions, shot the diplomat.

Pakistan accepted the collaboration with JKLF only as a "necessary compromise," because of the recognition that Islamist groups had very little currency in the Kashmir Valley.

The Islamist attacks on Kashmiri Pandits, liberal women, liquor shops and beauty parlours were never condemned by the JKLF.

"[23] By 1992, the majority of the JKLF militants were killed or captured and they were yielding ground to pro-Pakistan guerilla groups such as the Hizb-ul-Mujahideen, strongly promoted by the Pakistani military authorities.

[6] He has visited over twenty countries to lobby for his cause, including attending the UN General Assembly and held many press conferences there.

Khan died on 26 April 2016 at a hospital from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease in Rawalpindi, Pakistan, aged 82.

[32][33] Yasin Malik paid him a rich tribute, calling him "a pioneer of the freedom struggle, a herald of an independent Jammu Kashmir, a glowing example of persistence, ... a leader who, from his youth till the last breath, remained steadfast in the resistance movement.