KHYBER: Speakers at a literary session held in Bara on Sunday paid rich tribute to the late Pashto poet and writer Qandahar Afridi for his enlightening contributions to the Pashto literature and intense love for his mother tongue.

Organised by a local organisation, Maaroof Karawan, at Bara Press Club under the banner, Sparlay Pa Khyber Raghlo (spring came to Khyber), the participants attributed it to late Qandahar Afridi, a famous native poet.

Born in Tirah Valley in 1956 and later shifted to Bara, Qandahar started his poetic journey in 1971 and penned numerous books, with ‘Zama da Haj Safar’ as a very popular travelogue in the Pashto language.

The speakers said that Qandahar was an epitome of a dignified, creative and respected poet and writer with a unique style of composing rhythmic couplets, while narrating the sweetness and sourness of life.

They said that he had immense love for his soil, native people and the Pashto language with purity, benevolence and humanity in his poetry, which also reflected his deep experience of the hardships of life.

Speaking on the occasion, Saqib Afridi said that Qandahar would not only write and present his couplets but would rather give actual meaning to his words while also lighting the inner self of human beings by portraying a delicate picture of his motherland.

He said that the poetry was very simple in words and could be understood by even common people. “He was among those Pashto poets whose poetry was not only meant for reading but was written for deep feeling.

“His poetry was not only a collection of words but was rather an amalgamation of deep imagination, feeling, pain and the beauty of nature,” he said.

Daryab Afridi, another local poet, said that Qandahar was a thorough gentleman with extreme humanity, purity and burning sensation as hallmarks of his personality.

He said that the late poet had tried different topics in his poetic pursuit, but had never deviated from his local culture and traditions and the original local Pashto dialect. “His ghazals were a combination of simplicity, fluency, rhythm and feelings of life which readers would feel while narrating his poetry,” he said.

Daryab Afridi said that Qandahar remained very close to Baba-i-Ghazal of Pashto poetry, Ameer Hamza Khan Shinwari and Qalandar Mohmand, and had seldom missed any literary session held in the province.

Published in Dawn, April 13th, 2026