PESHAWAR, May 2: Professor Krishna Bose, daughter-in-law of the legendary Subhash Chandra Bose, met here on Monday the son of one of Netaji’s benefactors who had helped him in what later came to be known as the ‘Great Escape’. “I am very excited. Though I am here in Pakistan with a different agenda, but I decided to meet the family of Abad Khan and visit places where Netaji (Subhash) stayed,” said Prof Bose.

Ms Bose, who is former chairperson of the parliamentary standing committee on external affairs in India, arrived in Islamabad along with a delegation of Indian parliamentarians.

The meeting between Prof Bose and Siraj Khan, son of Abad Khan, was arranged at the residence of former interior minister Naseerullah Khan Babar, who comes from Pirpai, the village of late Abad Khan situated on the GT Road.

She also visited the Peshawar Cantonment Railway Station, where the Indian National Army chief had arrived in 1941 by Frontier Mail enroute to Afghanistan to escape the British.

She visited the Taj Mahal Hotel in Bajuri Gate where Netaji had stayed posing as a Muslim employee of an insurance company.

Historians say that a group of Netaji’s supporters including Akber Shah, who was then a member of the forward bloc in the Congress Party, Abad Khan, Mian Mohammad Shah of Pabbi and Ram Gupta had helped him in his escape from India to Afghanistan via the remote Tirah valley in the Khyber Agency in January 1941.

Prof Bose told reporters that a film on the life of Netaji would be released in India next week in which the role played by the Pukhtuns in his escape was also highlighted.

“Abad Khan and his friends disguised Netaji as Muslim, dressed him to look like a poor Pukhtun and helped him cross into Jalalabad, Afghanistan, via Tirah.

“It was a secret mission and nobody knew about Netaji,” said the lady who was elected to the Indian Parliament three times and at present heads Netaji Research Bureau.

She recalled that two Afridi tribesmen of Khyber Agency had been paid Rs45 to facilitate Netaji’s escape and turn him over to one Haji Mohammad Amin, an Afghan elder in Afghanistan. During his secret mission he stayed in Kabul for 40 days and the then Italian ambassador facilitated his journey.

Subhash Bose formed his own forward bloc of the Indian National Congress in 1939 after developing differences with Mr Gandhi. He was elected president of the Indian National Congress twice, in 1937 and in 1939, the second time he had defeated Gandhi’s nominee.

He was also the author of a resolution warning British of a revolt if they did not leave India in six months and hand over power to the Indians.

He, however, faced stiff opposition due to his rigid stand and had to quit the post of president.

“Despite Gandhiji’s opposition Netaji was elected president of the Congress party,” Prof Bose said.

Siraj, son of Abad Khan, offered the visiting lady with Peshawar’s famous Chapli Kebabs, which was liked by her father in law.