Hathikhel massacre

The ' Hathikhel massacre, also called the Hathi Khel incident, refers to the killing of about 80 civilians by men of the Frontier Constabulary and the British Indian Army on 24 August 1931 in the Bannu district of the North-West Frontier Province of British India.

Throughout the summer of 1931 British authorities were seeking to break the communications of the Khudai Khidmatgar (KK) movement, and martial law was declared by the British on 16 August; they had banned both the KK and the Congress and had arrested Badshah Khan and others. A large protest gathering was organised in Spin Tangi, at Hathi Khel, by local Waziri tribal leaders and sympathizers of the KK movement, despite the restrictions of the British. A local elder, Qazi Fazal Qadar, was fired upon by the arresting police, and in the ensuing violence some 80 protestors were killed and 300 were arrested. Captured in the violence, the wounded Qazi Fazal Qadar was dragged to the District Commissioner but died shortly afterwards. He was sentenced posthumously to 14 years imprisonment by the government, denied any religious rites and buried in Bannu prison.[1]

Some sources give the number of the dead as 70.[2]

See also

References

  1. ↑ Maria J. Stephan, Civilian Jihad: Nonviolent Struggle, Democratization, and Governance in the Middle East ISBN 978-0-230-62140-4
  2. ↑ Mukulika Banerjee, The Pathan unarmed: opposition & memory in the North West Frontier (2000), p. 59: "Government brutality intensified still further and on 24 August police fired on a protest meeting at Hathi Khel in Bannu district, killing seventy people."
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