KARACHI: Crowds started pouring in after noon at Governor House to attend the second day of the country’s first Adab Festival. Like moths to a flame, people were drawn to an enclosure where Aftab Nabi, former IGP of Sindh, was talking about colonial rule in the province.

Mr Nabi’s commanding voice had the young and the old hooked as he launched into the history of the Hur insurgency of 1941 to 1943 and the repression unleashed during the martial law period. He was joined by PML-F’s Mehtab Rashdi, Zaituna Umar, historian Yaqoob Bangash and moderator Masood Lohar.

“Basically there were two insurgencies. The first one was led by Bachoo Badshah and supported by Piro Wazir and a very big following of Hurs. This took place in the early 1890s. By 1896, it was crushed through the army, police and through various repressive techniques. Subsequent to that (this was) in 1896 when Piro Wazir fought it out and was killed in an encounter whereas Bachoo Badshah surrendered before Sardar Yaqoob, a very important personality, and was made to believe that he would be sent to prison for life,” said Mr Nabi.

“However, he was hanged and instead of giving him proper Muslim rites, he was buried under a road. The British apprehension was that if they gave him a normal funeral then perhaps there would be a maqbara and it would be thronged by people,” he added.

According to Mr Nabi, who was in the police service for 35 years, what followed was a quiet period but in 1900, the British authorities brought out the Criminal Tribes Act.

“This was very repressive legislation which was applied in the Bombay Presidency earlier … however as far as the Hurs were concerned basically they were not a tribe, but a collection of clans of various tribes like the Khaskhelis, Zamanis, Sanjranis, etc,” he explained. He added that this act should not have impacted them as it was targeted at those who indulged in hereditary crime.

Mr Nabi also discussed what happened when 12-year-old Pir Sibghatullah took over and became the Pir Pagaro.

“He was a determined lad who was not ready to bow to pressure. He decided not to conform to the requirements of tradition,” he said.

Eventually, the British wanted him to do what they wanted but he resisted and thus started what we would be called a media trial in today’s terms to malign the young Pir Pagaro.

By negative articles in newspapers and government reports the British turned him into a monster.

“In 1930, a case was registered against him on three counts: murder, kidnapping (which became known as the boy in the box) and possession of illegal weapons. The first charge of murder was dropped because the British authorities thought that it would require a cross-examination which would had been rigorous and the ‘prepared witnesses’ had decided to back off.

The charge of kidnapping, however, was strong as the boy had been kept in a box inside the Pir’s house, he said.

The charge of illegal weapons was a trick played by the British to nab the Pir. Eventually he was put behind bars for eight years.

“In jail, the Pir hired a young Mohammad Ali Jinnah to represent him. Quaid-i-Azam put forward a very strong case but the appeal was rejected, and you know what he said? ‘If this is the quality of justice in Sindh, then Sindh is not a place worth living in’,” he said.

Mr Nabi then chronicled the event which led to the second Hur insurgency.

He was interrupted by the moderator who asked other speakers to share their views.

Mr Bangash gave context to the insurgencies and differentiated between the two historic events.

“One needs to see the whole Hur issue which continued post-independence as well as the Criminal Tribes Act was only removed in 1952, as a very interesting endeavour to a settled government that’s a very important thing which is why for the British or those in government, they were uneasy with the Hurs because they couldn’t place them anywhere.

“They didn’t stay in one place. They kept moving, they had this great devotion to their pir, and wherever they (the British) found this in India or the Empire they acted against it,” he said.

Published in Dawn, February 3rd, 2019