Veteran Pashto poet and writer Salim Raaz passed away at local hospital after suffering from chest infection and respiratory issue, family source said on Monday. He was admitted at Hayatabad Medical Complex in critical condition on May 5 after tested positive of Covid-19. Despite best efforts of doctors and medical treatment he could not survive. Literacy circles, poets, writers and intellectuals have expressed deep grief and sorrow over his death and termed it a great loss to the field of literature. Salim Raaz was a life-long fellow of Pakistan Academy of Letters, lifetime Chairman World Pashto Adbi Conference, journalist and writer who contributed a lot to both Pashto and Urdu literature. In 1969, with the help of his literary friends, Salim Raaz formed the Pushto Adabi Jirga to hold critical literary sittings in Karachi and also contributed to different literary journals and newspapers published from Peshawar and Quetta.