Like a demon rising from the bog swamp, Nadir Khan rose and cast
a hellish pall over Afghanistan. It is well-known today that
Nadir Khan invited Kalakani, the then ruler, to join him in
Kabul so that they could discuss the political upheavals and had
signed an oath on the Quran so that Kalakani would believe he
was safe. Unbeknownst to Kalakani that Nadir Khan would sell
even his religion to get to power, the Tajik ruler accompanied
the religious envoy sent by Nadir Khan to Kabul. Once there, he
was brutally shot and then hanged. Nadir Khans trail of evil
grew worse from then on.
When Nadir Shah seized political power, the first thing he did
was execute all the famous or influential people of Afghanistan
who were pro Amanullah Khan. He had them executed
indiscriminately. From the Charkhi family alone, he had 18
members executed, including Ghulam Nabi Khan and Ghulam Jelani
Khan, because of political differences. Their brother Ghulam
Sediq Khan was out of the country during this time and so his
life was unknowingly spared. Other people who were fortunate
enough to escape the hand of Nadir Shah were Ghulam Jelanis
wife, Shah Bibi, and his daughters, Razia and Rabia. Everyone
else was executed.
He would not tolerate any support or loyalty anyone
had towards Amanullah Khan, regardless of who they were or their
standings in the society. When Nadir Shah or one of his
criminal stooges from his mercenary army saw even a wall which
had so much as the name of Amanullah Khan written on it, they
turn their cannons loose and destroy it. Even books were not
spared. Book stores and libraries were torn down just for
containing material that had Amanullah Khans picture or name.
Such was the hatred and insecurity Nadir Khan felt towards
Amanullah Khan.
While he went about executing all the supporters of
the former ruler, at the same time he commenced looting the
whole North of Afghanistan because the region was primarily
Tajik. Some of the tribes that committed the atrocious acts for
Nadir Khan were the Zazai, Mangal, Mohmand, with many more.
With these clans, he attacked the Northern areas, terrorizing
the Tajik homelands. They kidnapped female members of families,
pillaged houses and then burned them down once they stripped
everything of value from it, killed anyone who got in their way
no matter who it was. They stole peoples valuables to budget
Nadir Khans campaign.
The money was then put to waste. From the countrys
treasury, Nadir Khan paid large sums of money to have people
rewrite the current events so that he would go down in history
the way he wanted to and kept the truth from printed paper. He
had every pro-Amanullah Khan literature destroyed and replaced
with his own propaganda i.e. literature and writings that
praised him and his family. Chaos and destruction laid on
everyones doorstep and not a word of it was to be recorded.
HAZARAS CURSE TO BEAR
Nadir Khan is easily the worst despotic ruler. He
was a tyrant, oppressive, and along the likes of Abdul Rahman
Khan. Like Abdul Rahman, Nadir Khan had a burning hatred for
the Hazara and Shia community of the country. It was as if he
was the inheritor of Abdul Rahmans legacy of hated and he took
it upon himself to continue the former tyrants system of
massive execution and oppression of Hazaras. And later on,
Nadir Khans younger brother, Sardar Hashim, proved to be
even worse than Abdul Rahman.
Nadir Khan and his Mahsibeen family, who were the
former servants of Amanullah Khan, not only betrayed their
former boss but they went beyond what was necessary to prove
their disloyalty towards him by massacring anyone who spoke even
a good word about Amanullah Khan. They had their spies
infiltrate into the masses to find such support so that they
could extinguish any threat of uprisings. Amanullah Khan had
massive support among the Hazara people, which is one of the
reasons why Nadir Khan hated the Hazaras so much. Because of
this support, Nadir Khan used the most brutal methods to oppress
and kill the Hazaras. Several generations of Hazara people
endured the torturous reign of Nadir Khan; it still lives in
their memories. The younger generation who were lucky to have
survived told their narratives and stories of barbaric acts they
witnessed against their own people.
For years the Hazaras were enslaved and lost their
very livelihood. They were forced to abandon their homes and
went into the mountains to seek refugee. Those who stayed
behind in their villages and towns said they felt the oppression
descend heavily over their town like a shadow. They knew there
were spies of Nadir Khan around them but were not able to tell
who they were. Their river ran thick with blood instead of
water, the very air they breathed felt contaminated with obvious
hatred, they lived with fear, not knowing which day would be
their last. This misery had befallen their community for a long
time and the Hazaras knew no other life but that of suffering.
The former ruler, Amanullah Khan, was a secular
open-minded king. He advocated reforms and modernization of the
country, and he was a friend to the Hazaras. Through his
presidential decree, he banned the slavery of Hazaras. This was
a huge relief and great moment in history for the Hazaras who
have suffered under the tyrannical hand of former rulers i.e.
Abdul Rahman. However, this celebratory abolishment was
short-lived. In the time of Nadir Khan and of his brother
Sardar Hashim Khan who succeeded him, all the social injustices
returned. Once again, it was a dark time for the Hazaras but
this time it seemed like Nadir Khan was taking out a personal
vendetta against the Hazara people. Aside for punishing them
for supporting Amanullah Khan, it was as if he wanted to punish
them for even existing in the first place. The Hazaras
suffering grew tenfold for every minute moment of happiness they
might have known in the past. They had no political
representation and therefore their pleas and protests fell on
deaf ears.
Who was there to witness the terrorization of the Hazaras?
Nadir Khan and his family of marauders threw innocent Hazaras
down wells, kept them in cages, and left them to rot in jail.
Even non-Hazara politicians who tried to bring about even a
small change or show a hint of support towards the Hazaras were
not spared. It was a dark time for social justice indeed. For
a little over a century, the Hazaras have been treated in the
most inhumane way possible; oppressed by the likes of Abdul
Rahman to the fascistic government of Nadir Khan, Zahir Khan,
Daoud and Hashim Khan. They were condemned racially and
religiously with no chance of defending themselves. The
governmental policy towards the Hazaras was to kill the male
family members, keep their women as slaves, and torture the
children until they cursed the name of Hazara.
The policy was aimed at destroying the whole social
structure of the Hazaras by reeking havoc on their life, driving
them out of their ancestral land, and deny them of their
identity. These polices were so sever and harsh that it made the
Hazaras seem like criminals. It came to be that it was a curse
to be a Hazara; the very name Hazara was equivalent of a
social curse. This fed into the minds of the people and had the
other ethnic groups as well as some Hazaras look down upon the
group as a whole. Hazaras were ashamed of themselves for
reasons unknown to themselves. They thought something was wrong
with them but could not figure out what it was that made them
despicable and so they blamed themselves. They were victims of
abuse, psychologically traumatized and forever stigmatized.
They were collectively seen and treated like second-class
citizens. Later on, in the time of Hashim Khans premiership, a
decree was issued which banned the children of Hazaras from
attending higher educational institutions, and military and
police academies. They were also denied scholarship funds,
employment opportunities in the foreign ministry, intelligence
agency, and governmental institution. These tyrant rulers
literally kept one quarter of the countrys population oppressed
and denied them the rights any human being is free to have. They
had no qualms in advertising their prejudices against the
Hazaras.
During Nadir Khans time, the brutal treatment of
the Hazaras was at its peak. Nadir and his brothers and their
mercenary clans were cutting the heads of people who were
struggling and fighting for social justice and equal
representation. They would openly cane them on the streets and
throw boiling oil on their heads to have them serve as examples
to everyone else. They made human vests out of innocent
people, a horrendous act of cutting the heads and arms of
people; they pulled their nails out as a form of torture; held
public hangings, etc. All of this was the norm of the day
during Nadir Khans reign. In this Market of Blood, the
blood-sucking spies and traitors were profiting from the death
and torture of Hazaras and Hazara supporters; there were
monetary rewards as well as prestigious titles and posts to be
awarded for anyone who aided Nadir Khan in his path of
destruction.
With the consultation of the British, Nadir Khan
likened to a madman, holding a sword and blindly and
indiscriminately cutting peoples heads off in various
communities. He didnt care who came in contact with the sword
as he swung it in various directions be it a woman, little
child, old man, an intellectual or a day laborer as long as it
was a Hazara. He did as much damage as he could; he poisoned
their water wells, looted from them, and basically changed their
homeland to a massive grave yard.
The history of Afghanistan lies in the reality of
these brutal and tyrannical rulers who emerged from the tribal
society. History was made by these bloody tyrants of tribal
people who never hesitated to eliminate those who were different
from them. The barbaric rulers would shut the voices of the
people to keep them from crying out against the injustices that
were inflicted on them; as British mercenaries they used
religion and anything else they could get their hands on as
a tool to manipulate the masses and gain control. This is how
they created history.
Remembering all the injustices and sorrowful events
that have taken place in Afghanistan, it is quite clear what is
lacking: social justice, democracy, equal representation. The
only way to save a society or a nation is to have these vital
things. But Afghanistan has always had a problem with a small
minority who has always called the region their own homeland.
The tribal people have figured that the only way for them to
survive is to abolish social equality and justice for the rest
of the ethnic groups. Thus, they have gained political power
through manipulation and have been used and abused by other
foreign powers for their own agenda and benefit. Their main
goal has always been to massacre and oppress others. However,
it is important now more than ever for Afghanistan to establish
democracy, social justice, and equal representation. If they
are not set up, it will then just prolong the suffering and
prolong the miserable state that the people are in. The
Pashtuns have always claimed that they are the rightful rulers
and guardians of the country. And if they continue to think
like that, then there will be no remedy for the country and the
hatred born of this injustice will always be there.
ABDUL KHALIQ: SYMBOL OF HOPE
Abdul Khaliq, the martyred hero, had fought against tyranny and
oppression. His goal was to bring about social justice and
equality, especially for his people. He sacrificed his life for
such a noble cause. This brave hero and son of the proud Hazara
nation had felt the injustice with his very flesh and bone. At
a young age, he understood the brutalities and oppressions that
had befallen on his country, on his people as well as the non-Hazaras.
The top head of the pyramid of this oppressive regime had to be
eliminated and so he took the mission upon himself, to sacrifice
himself in order to save the whole nation, particularly the
hopeless Hazaras. He made a silent promise and was determined
to carry out his plans, knowing that there could only be one
answer, one conclusion, to such a reign as Nadir Khans.
Afghanistan had to be purged of such a cruel and
barbaric person as this Nadir Khan, who never tired of sending
out his prejudiced and hate-filled decrees and new ways of
torturing and killing Hazaras. Abdul Khaliq refused the idea
that he was the one born guilty, as was the mentality of most
Hazaras because of the laws of Nadir Khan. He knew it was the
ruler himself who was not only born guilty but was, in fact,
digging his own grave. Khaliq knew that by eliminating the
tyrant he would go down in history and be remembered by such a
noble cause. No matter how young he died, he knew that his name
would at least live eternally. And yes, the people of the world
and of the region, especially the Hazaras and non-Hazaras,
have realized that indeed, young Abdul Khaliq had taken a
noble mission as his own personal duty. This has become even
more evident in the past few decades as people realized just how
big of a despot Nadir Khan really was. In the beginning, the
news and media were all manipulated by Nadir Khans family but
now that people are less afraid to report and write the truth,
the shadow of lies have slowly been pushed aside, revealing the
facts and reality. In the last few decades, people have been
writing the no-longer censored truth and Abdul Khaliq changed
from a John Wilkes Booth to a shining star for those who
suffered for too long under tyrants, he became to be known as a
symbol of freedom, equality, and justice.
The dark times led Abdul Khaliq to his lifes
mission. The monarchs and their mercenary family openly
admitted to terrorizing groups of people in order to keep their
precious crowns and their position of power. They kept the
masses in the dark, kept them from being educated so that hardly
anyone would be able to tell what was right and what was wrong.
Its been recorded that Abdul Rahman Khan has committed genocide
against the Hazara, eradicated 62% of their population. Those
who lived were forcefully removed from their ancestry lands of
Urzogan, Zabul, and Kandahar.
Abdul Khaliqs family was among those that were
forcefully removed. His grandfather was from Daya, Foland and
for a short time they were settled in Dahzangi and Ghazni.
During Abdul Rahmans time, Abdul Khaliqs grandfather was
forced to run away with his family in order to save their
lives. Their positions, money, and any valuables along with
their land were taken away by Amir Rahman Khan. Their lands
were to be given to kuchi nomads who were moved in from Indian
or other areas. Abdul Rahmans grandfather had no other choice
but to helplessly watch half of his family be executed; those
that couldnt escape were murdered to make sure they would never
come back. Abdul Khaliqs grandfather was survived by two sons
by the name of Mawladad Abdul Khaliqs father and Khodadad.
Both of them found work with the family of Charkhi. Mawladad
worked for Ghulam Sediq while Khodadad worked for Ghulam Jelani.
Later on, when Abdul Khaliq was old enough to work, he worked
alongside his uncle for Ghulam Jelani.
Mawladad, Khaliqs father, was a very educated man.
He was self-taught and read whenever he could get the chance.
He would often accompany Ghulam Sediq on short business trips to
Europe and learned how to fluently speak German, English, and
Russian. He was also very politically opinionated, well aware
of everything that was happening around them. Abdul Khaliq and
his family came under the influence of movements for social
justice and democracy. Abdul Khaliq was especially moved by
these ideas and at a younger age was influenced by the
movements. He witnessed the struggle for freedom and social
justice and willfully became a partner and follower himself to
fight against the tyranny of the puppet region of the British.
Abdul Khaliq was born in 1916 and his father,
Mawladad, had a special hand in his upbringing from the start.
He showed special attention to his young son and was very much
involved in Khaliqs life. When his son was old enough,
Mawladad applied and got Abdul Khaliq admitted to Lycee Nejat.
Abdul Khaliq developed a special relationship with the members
of the Charkhi family and was especially close with Shah Bibi
Khanum, the wife of Ghulam Jelani, whom he highly respected and
considered to be like his own mother.
Abdul Khaliq was a very serious young man from the
start. He was emotional and hot-headed and people always said
he had the characteristics of a real man even at a young age.
Determination resonated from his very being; he was a decent and
honest man, always kept his word and was punctual, was handsome
and athletic, particularly fond of gymnastics and soccer. All
his life he was surrounded with politically-motivated figures
and was aware of their stance and of the situations around him.
It wasnt unusual that he himself became revolutionary; after
all, he did not have a normal childhood, one of carefree days
and equal footings. The special attention his father bestowed
on him by keeping him educated and informed made it seem as if
Abdul Khaliq had accomplished the destination of one hundred
years of travel in one night, thus giving him the experiences
and knowledge of a much older person. He was changed to a
fighter, not scared of anything and was able to fight against
tyranny.
Martyr Khaliq became a member of the secret organizations and
the young revolutionary Hazara wanted to show he was fully
committed to them. He wanted to prove that he was capable to
perform any mission and he made contacts with people anywhere
that he could. The Charkhi family was a very political family
and they admired his willingness. In his school, Lycee Nejat,
several of the teachers were politically motivated as well and
they helped Khaliq establish contacts. One of his teachers,
Mohammed Azim Khan, and the Vice Principal, Mohammed Ayub Khan,
would often discuss such politicized issues and Khaliq grew more
aware from these people. He constantly thought about the future
of his country and of ways he could help.
Khaliq of the Hazaras was the son of a disadvantaged
society, who were denied basic rights. He would gaze upon his
vast underprivileged people, the inheritors of suffering. Just
as how a blacksmith shapes steel by first placing it in a fiery
furnace, Khaliq was shaped the same way. He endured the fiery
furnace of poverty, of unbearable and unfair disadvantages of
his kind and was thus shaped into a man of steel; nothing could
hurt him after what he had witnessed first hand. In this
continuous struggle of his people, he became the torchbearer and
knew he had to do something about the injustices that had
wrongly befallen his people.
He came to understand what his sole mission in life
was and knew he would be the one to accomplish it. And so he
looked for every opportunity to carry out his task. One day, in
Kabul, parts of a fortress were to be rebuilt and Nadir Khan was
placing the first foundation stone as a ceremonial gesture
towards the reconstruction. Abdul Khaliq attended the function
with plans of executing his mission there but other
circumstances arose and he was not successful and so, he had to
wait for another day. Abdul Khaliq then had hopes of performing
his duty during the month of Sunbolah, on the anniversary of
when Nadir Khan overthrew Kalakanis government and taken over
power. But again, circumstances arose that kept Khaliq from
accomplishing his task. Then, Khaliq was given a chance on
November 8th, 1933. On this day, Nadir Khan was
planned to attend the final examinations of Lycee Nejat as well
as act as a judge on the Fall sport tournaments. He was
scheduled to go to different classes and observe while the
students took their final exams.
One of the classes he attended was Abdul Khaliqs.
Nadir Khan walked through each row, glancing around him without
a care and reached the row where Khaliq was standing. He took
that first auspicious step and his fate was sealed. As Nadir
Khan took a few more steps into the row, Khaliq stepped out of
his place and came forward to meet Nadir Khan in a calm and
relaxed manner. His gun rose as call to battle and Khaliq
pulled the trigger and fired a bullet aimed at the tyrant in
front of him. Before anyone could react, he pulled the trigger
again and once again and Nadir Khans body shook with each hit
before dropping to the floor, motionless once and for all.
Abdul Khaliq had finally accomplished his task, killing one of
the worse tyrants in history, the puppet of the British, an evil
and unprincipled man who had betrayal running through his
veins.
Abdul Khaliq was neither ashamed nor scared of his
actions. He did not run away to hide or to escape; he was a man
and wanted to face the circumstances. It did not take long for
Nadirs henchmen to give the news to Nadirs brothers. All the
freedom-loving people and those against the tyranny and
injustice had cause to celebrate; they said they would always
remember this day as the victory of righteousness over evil.
Abdul Khaliq surpassed even placing the bell around the cats
neck and went straight to eliminating the cat altogether.
However, even in death, Nadir managed to spread
injustice like a toxin spilling over. Nadir Khans brothers and
clan wanted to kill every single student in the school for what
had happened to the ruler. The rest of the governmental
officials intervened and consulted with them and convinced Shah
Mahmood, Nadir Khans brother, that the killer and the supposed
accomplices were arrested and that the other 2,000 students had
nothing to do with it.
In the afternoon of December 19, 1933, when it was
so cold that even a stone would crack, injustice was
administered once more upon Khaliq and his people. Not only was
Khaliq arrested but several innocent people were taken as well:
Mahmud Khan, his teacher; Mawladad his father; Khodadad his
uncle; Qurban Ali, the cold water seller; his mothers brother
Rabbani; Mustafa and Latif, the youngsters of the Charkhi
family; Ali Akbar Meshir; Mahmud, the employee of Anis Press;
Students Mir Masjidid, Mohammed Zaman, Mohammed Aziz, Mohammed
Eshaq; Mohammed Ayub, the Vice Principal of Lycee Nejat a.k.a
Amani High School; Mohammed Azmeem, a teacher. Aside from them,
21 of Abdul Khaliqs family members, friends and acquaintances
including two of his uncles little children Abdullah, 9, and
Abdul Rahman, 11, were taken as well. They were all taken
towards the southern gate of Ark to be shot and then hanged.
There was no trial, no chance to defend oneself, nothing.
17-year old Khaliq was condemned to be martyred. Many others
were imprisoned for no stated reason, like Hafiza, Khaliqs 9
year old sister, who ended up dying in prison because of
mistreatment.
Abdul Khaliq was tortured before he was killed.
Though the human body could only take so much, Khaliq showed
incredible endurance. His animalistic punishers dried to
demanded to know who his accomplices were and who the mastermind
behind his mission was. They wanted him to name names and would
not relent the severe punishment until he spoke. But all Khaliq
would say was that he took full responsibility and that only he
should be punished and no one else. It fell on deaf ears,
however.
One of his friends, Mohammed Eshaq, was tortured so much, he
could not control his emotions and anger any longer. While
screaming and moaning in pain, he yelled at Abdul Khaliq, saying
What kind of damn friend were you? Why didnt you tell us and
trust us with your plan? Why did you keep it a secret?
Together, we would have killed the entire team of these
bastards. We would not have left one of them alive. And
so, its your fault we are in this position, we could have
gotten rid of them all. They were his last words to Khaliq
before he was hanged.
Khaliq saw his only regret was that he did not confide in anyone
else. He said, Yes, he was right. My precautions were all
meaningless. I was consumed with the need to rid us of Nadir
Khan that I did not consider his marauders would be so unjust.
Please forgive me. Khaliqs body was cut into many pieces,
slowly and one by one, he was shown his severed body parts
before they were tossed away. There was nothing left of him to
hang.
Khaliq and his friends and family will always be
remembered by the people of Afghanistan for their courage and
the elimination of such an evil and corrupted man. They lost
their lives, had sacrificed their lives for the Hazaras, Tajiks,
and other people. These were the brave people of our nation,
standing up to face tyranny in the face.
One should ask, because of Khaliqs actions, why did
others have to be killed? Why did the barbarians murder
Khaliqs father, his uncle, his mothers brother, his 9 and 11
year old cousins, his classmates, teachers, and various other
people? Why did other have to be locked up in prisons for
something they obviously had no part in? Years later, the
skulls of those people were found in the jail cells. What kind
of mentality did these barbarians have? How could any civilized
person think this was right? Human beings are not capable of
this kind of cruelty, only the tribal mentality would lead
someone to punish innocent people so severely. This is beyond
the cruelty of Changiz Khan, who has one of the worst
reputations of being brutal. Even Changiz did not kill his own
Mongolians so how could Nadir Khan and his inhumane clan members
kill their own countrymen? The soulless yes-men of Nadir Khan
did everything for money or perhaps out of fear; they wrote
books and articles insulting and badmouthing Khaliq. They have
eliminated every single member of Khaliqs family until there is
no trace of his bloodline left. They were able to murder
innocent people and children and yet they are the ones
condemning one single act of Khaliqs.
Before the hero Khaliq pulled the trigger, he had
surrounded himself to God. He said, Almighty God, I am doing
this to save my people from this tyrannical dictator. I will
sacrifice my life so that my people can have a chance of a
better future. You are the only Witness I need. With my blood,
I seek peace for my nation. And so, I am asking you to forgive
me. And then he pulled the trigger.
That trigger pushed Afghanistan into the next
chapter of its dark history as Nadir Khans brother and son rose
to power like a multi-headed beast. But for that one second
before the bullet escaped the chamber, there was a glimmer of
hope that perhaps Abdul Khaliq would not die in vain.
References:
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-
Essays About Lands and Dignitaries of Hazarajat by Hussein
Naheel, spring 2000, Published in Iran.
-
Afghanistan in the Past 5 Centuries by Mir Mohammed Seddiq
Farhang, First Edition, Part Two. Published in Iran 1992.
-
Voice of Hazaraistan Publication 11th Edition, 3rd
year. February 1999.
-
Hazara narratives
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