Khudai Khidmatgar

News:It’s 90 years since Peshawar’s Qissa Khwani Bazaar massacre in which several Khudai Khidmatgar movement protestors were killed by the British soldiers.

Facts:

• Khudai Khidmatgar(Red Shirt movement) was a non-violent movement against the British occupation of the Indian subcontinent.
• It was led by Abdul Ghaffar Khan, a Pashtun freedom fighter in the North-West Frontier Province.
• However, the arrest of Abdul Ghaffar Khan in 1929 led to severe protests which was crackdown by the British through the firing on several protesters known as Qissa Khwani Bazaar massacre.
• In 1931, the movement aligned with the Indian National Congress and went on to form the government in the North Frontier Province after the provincial elections of 1937.
• They had also opposed Partition, a stance that many interpreted as the movement not being in favour of the creation of the independent nation of Pakistan.