Mumbai, Mar 24 (IANS): Veteran Urdu journalist and social worker Ansari Aejaz Ahmed has been given the prestigious Maharashtra Urdu Sahitya Academy Award for excellence in Urdu journalism.

Ahmed, 50, is currently a senior reporter in the Urdu Section of UNI news agency and has earlier served in various Urdu dailies in Mumbai and other parts of India in his three-decade long career.

The award was given away at the hands of Maharashtra Minority Affairs Minister Eknath Khadse in the presence of other dignitaries at a function here late Wednesday .

Ahmed has extensively covered the proceedings of the March 1993 Mumbai serial blasts from day one till the verdict was delivered, the 2008 Mumbai terror attack, several Lok Sabha and assembly elections and other major events of national and international importance for Urdu readers.

Based in Mumbai, he has also served as a secretary of The Press Club, Mumbai and has visited the US to study the presidential elections there.