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| Babrra incident د بابړې خونړۍ پېښه | |
|---|---|
  Babrra ground Babrra ground (Khyber Pakhtunkhwa) | |
| Location | 34°08′35″N71°43′39″E / 34.14306°N 71.72750°E /34.14306; 71.72750 Babrra ground,Hashtnagar region,Charsadda District,North-West Frontier Province (present-dayKhyber Pakhtunkhwa),Pakistan |
| Date | 12 August 1948; 77 years ago (1948-08-12) |
| Target | Supporters of theKhudai Khidmatgar movement |
Attack type | murder,mass shooting,drowning |
| Deaths | 15 (official figure)[1] 150 (Khudai Khidmatgar claim)[1] |
| Injured | 50 (official figures)[1] 400 (Khudai Khidmatgar claim)[1] |
| Perpetrators | C.M.Abdul Qayyum Khan Kashmiri,State police |
TheBabrra Massacre (orBabara Massacre;Pashto:د بابړې خونړۍ پېښه) was a mass shooting by state police on 12 August 1948 in theNorth-West Frontier Province (NWFP) ofPakistan (now called as Khyber Pakhtunkhwa). According to official figures, around 15 protestors were killed while around 40 were injured. However,Khudai Khidmatgar sources maintained that around 150 were killed and 400 were injured.[1] It is also referred as theKarbala of Pathans.[2]
It happened on Babrra ground inCharsadda District on the order of the chief minister of the NWFP,Abdul Qayyum Khan Kashmiri (not to be confused withSahibzada Abdul Qayyum Khan, NWFP's first chief minister during the British Raj).[3]
TheKhudai Khidmatgar was a non-violent peacefulPashtun movement which was led byAbdul Ghaffar Khan (Bacha Khan), a leader in theIndian Independence Movement.[4]
The movement was initially focused on reform to the status of thePashtuns under theBritish Raj and later focused on the independence ofColonial India from British rule.[5] The movement's leader, Abdul Ghaffar Khan, was a supporter of aUnited India and wantedNorth-West Frontier Province (present-dayKhyber Pakhtunkhwa) to join United India.[6]
Until 1930, the Pashtuns were not very involved in politics. In the1937 Indian provincial elections, the movement won the elections for the North-West Frontier Province in alliance with theCongress Party, as Bacha Khan's brother,Khan Abdul Jabbar Khan (Dr. Khan Sahib), became the provincial chief minister.[7]
The movement also won an absolute majority in the1946 Indian provincial elections.[8] Despite theBannu Resolution in which the Khudai Khidmatgars demanded that the province should becomePashtunistan or join Afghanistan, the British refused and had only offered two choices, to join an independent India or to join the new nation ofPakistan. The NWFP joined theDominion of Pakistan as a result of the1947 NWFP referendum which had been boycotted by the Khudai Khidmatgar.[9]
Before the Babrra Massacre, the electedprovincial government of Dr. Khan Sahib in the North-West Frontier Province was terminated byMuhammad Ali Jinnah, theGovernor-General of Pakistan. AMuslim League leader,Abdul Qayyum Khan Kashmiri, was appointed as the newchief minister of the NWFP on 23 August 1947.[10]
The new provincial government imprisoned the Khudai Khidmatgar’s anti-Pakistan movement's leader Bacha Khan, as well as the deposed chief minister Dr. Khan Sahib, and some other notable figures of the region. In July 1948, thegovernor of the NWFP,Ambrose Flux Dundas promulgated an ordinance, authorizing the provincial government to detain anyone and confiscate their property without giving a reason.[11]
On 12 August 1948, supporters of the Khudai Khidmatgar movement protested against the arrest of their leaders and the new ordinance enforced by the government. The protesters marched fromCharsadda to Babrra ground. However, when they reached Babrra ground, Abdul Qayyum Khan ordered thepolice to open fire on protesters. According to official figures, around 15 protestors were killed while around 40 were injured. However, Khudai Khidmatgar sources maintained that around 600 were killed and 400 were injured.[1]
In mid-September 1948, the central government of Pakistan banned the Khudai Khidmatgar movement and many of its supporters were arrested. The provincial government destroyed the centre of the Khudai Khidmatgar movement atSardaryab, Charsadda District.[3][12]
In July 1950,Huseyn Shaheed Suhrawardy, president of theAll Pakistan Awami Muslim League (which later evolved into theAwami League and later Prime Minister of Pakistan, said at a large gathering inDhaka,East Bengal (present-dayBangladesh): “The barbarous massacre of the Red Shirts (Khudai Khidmatgars) committed at Charsadda in 1948 surpassed theJallianwala Bagh massacre committed by the British in 1919.”[12]
Official figures mentioned fifteen dead fifty injured, but KK (Khudai Khidmatgar) sources maintained that 150 had been killed and 400 wounded
It later developed into a disciplined nonviolent army to fight for the independence of India from the British.
