PESHAWAR: Awami National Party workers in Bannu will be holding a gathering today to remember the great sacrifices of Khudai Khidm-atgar Qazi Fazal Qadir and his companions against the injustices of the British in 1930.

In a statement issued here on Tuesday, ANP central president Asfandyar Wali Khan said that Hathi Khel tragedy was an enlightening chapter of the history when a handful of people stood against the unjust British rule.

In another statement ANP general secretary Mian Iftikhar Hussain said the Hathi Khel tragedy reminded one of the non-violent protest against the killing of freedom fighters. “Not only do we need to remember these tragedies we also need to remember those 800 ANP workers who got killed in the war on terrorism,” he pointed out.

“The federal and provincial governments don’t want to invite trouble by opposing terrorists so the ANP workers who have been killed in the war on terrorism are not owned by these governments,” he lamented.

On Aug 24, 1930, Qazi Fazal Qadir and 80 other Khudai Khidmatgars made history by sacrificing their lives during a non-violent protest against the killing of people in Qissa Khawani and Takar at the hands of the British.

August is a tragic month for ANP workers who recently remembered those killed in the Babra massacre which occurred on Aug 12, 1948 in Charsadda, where a peaceful procession of the volunteers was fired at on the orders of the then chief minister Abdul Qayyum Khan.

Published in Dawn, August 24th, 2016