President, PM pay tributes to Zakir Hussain

President Pranab Mukherjee and Prime Minister Narendra Modi Sunday paid tributes to former president Zakir Hussain on his birth anniversary.

"The president, officers and staff paid floral tributes in front of a portrait of Zakir Hussain in the Ashoka Hall of Rashtrapati Bhavan," said a statement from the president's house.

Modi said in a statement: "I pay my tributes to India's former president, the illustrious scholar and freedom fighter, Zakir Hussain on his birth anniversary."

Zakir Hussain was the country's first Muslim president and the third president from May 13, 1967 till his death May 3, 1969.

He was conferred the Bharat Ratna in 1963.