The Hindu [India's National Newspaper]:

Congress president Sonia Gandhi has condoled the death of sarod maestro Ustad Ali Akbar Khan, who passed away on Friday after prolonged kidney ailment.

In a letter to his wife, Mary Khan, Ms. Gandhi said: “Ustad Ali Akbar Khan embodied the very pinnacle of our great classical music tradition. In his hands, the sarod was an instrument that expressed with unsurpassed beauty and eloquence the noblest aspirations and deepest yearnings of the human soul.”

Ms. Gandhi said his death was an irreplaceable loss to the nation. But his, music, which carried forward the great tradition of Ustad Allauddin Khan, would live on forever.

(Many thanks to the commenters/emailers who brought his passing to our attention.)