90 Years of #SpeenTangiMassacre1930 – Member of Yaqub Khan Family, Nasir Wazir

The #SpeenTangimassacre1930 refers to the killing of about 80 non-violent Pashtun protesters by the Frontier Constabulary and the British Indian Army on 24 August 1930 in the Bannu district of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province of British India. This massacre was committed just 3 months after the Takkar massacre in Mardan and 4 months after the Qissa Khwani massacre in Peshawar. Throughout the summer of 1930 British authorities were seeking to break the communications of the Khudai Khidmatgar (KK) movement, and martial law was declared by the British on 16th August; they had banned both the KK and the Congress and had arrested #BachaKhan and others. A large protest gathering was organized in Spin Tangi, by local tribal leaders and sympathizers of the KK movement, despite the restrictions of the British. A local elder, Qazi Fazal Qadar along with 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. Here a member of the family of the then leader Muhammad Yaqub Khan shares his views regarding the massacre.