At the Frontier Gandhi’s Abode

Returning to Peshawar, I visited “Wali Bagh” – the country residency of Dr. Wali Khan, the illustrious son of the late Frontier Gandhi, Abdul Gaffar Khan. “India had abandoned us”, wailed the Khan. He listed Pakhtoon families who on the Frontier Gandhi’s call gave up guns, becoming “Unarmed Red Guard” and marched for Indian Independence under the command of Mahatma Gandhi. The 15,000 khudai-khidmadgar (volunteers) went to prisons and carried the Tourch of Freedom in the mountains of North-West Frontier region against the British Raj. The Congress Working Committee led by Jawaharlal Nehru accepted the Partition. They did not consider the future of the Pakhtoom people. They did not consult the Frontier Gandhi. No-reward, or recognition was given to the sacrifices of the Pakhtoon people. Tagore’s Kabuliwalah notwithstanding, New Delhi government had thrown the Pakhtoons to the wolfs.

Dr.and Mrs. Wali Khan narrated atrocities committed by the Pakistani military dictators upon the helpless Pakhtoon nation of the North West Frontier. Cry for Freedom in Bengladesh was helped by India but the struggle of the Pakhtoons was lost in the cold-war strategy as the western powers (US and UK) used Islamabad to crush aspiration of the Pakhtoon nationalism. But the Frontier Gandhi refused to recognize the Islamic Republic and willed not to be buried in Pakistan. His last resting place is across the Khyber, in Pakhtooni soil of Afghanistan.

The Frontier Gandhi had spent eight years in prison under the British Raj. But he was incastarated for eighteen years by Military rulers of Islambad. His son Dr. Wali Khan had spent three years in the British jail but Pakistani dictators kept him in prison for eight years. In the residency of Wali Khan, I visited the Saga of the Indian Freedom Struggle. Thousands of photographs belonging to the 1942 Quit India years of our last Battle of Independence led by Mahatma were spread over the entire library wall of the Khan’s residency.

With a heavy heart as I rose to leave the Khan’s residency, I wondered, “Have we betrayed the Pakhtoons?” If Musharraf can fight for Kashmiris, why not India should stand by the Pakhtoon’s right to self-determination?