January 26, 2008	Saturday	Muharram 16, 1429

PESHAWAR, Jan 25: Leaders and workers of the Awami National Party are set to observe the death anniversaries of Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan and his son Khan Abdul Wali Khan.

The party activists will pay tribute to Bacha Khan and Wali Khan at a function to be held on Saturday at the Bacha Khan Markaz, the party’s central secretariat.

They will hold Qurankhwani in the morning and offer condolences in the evening to be followed by a speech by party chief Asfandyar Wali Khan. Similar gatherings will be held across the province.

Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan, also known as Fakhr-i-Afghan, died following protracted illness on Jan 20 in 1988. Upon his will, he was buried in Jalalabad, Afghanistan.

Wali Khan breathed his last on Jan 26 in 2006 and was laid to rest at Wali Bagh in Charsadda.

Bacha Khan was born in the house of Khan Behram Khan of the Utmanzai village, Charsadda, in 1890. After receiving Quranic lessens, he was sent to Peshawar for primary education and the missionary school where he developed the craze for serving the disadvantaged and needy people, while being under the influence of his teachers.

After matriculation, Gaffar Khan applied for a direct commission in the prestigious British Indian Army. With strong and muscular body and a height of 6-3 inches he was immediately selected.

But very soon he realised how the Britishers looked down upon the Pakhtuns when he saw his friend being insulted by a British officer at the then Peshawar Regiment. He decided that he should not be a servant of the British government and, subsequently, he quit the job.

Bacha Khan married twice. Married in 1912, he and his wife were proud parents of two sons, Abdul Ghani Khan and Wali Khan.

His first wife died six years after the marriage and he remarried in 1920. His second wife died in 1926, in an accident in Jerusalem on a pilgrimage to Masjid al Aqsa. He had fathered a son and a daughter from the second wife.