قید ‏یاغستان/Qaid ‎e ‎Yagistan

I just finished reading the book Qaid e Yagistan again. I stumbled on in on my recent visit to Pakistan. I made a special trip to Jhelum Book Corner to get a book for a friend of mine. It is an amazing bookstore, by the way. I recommend it to everyone who can stop over on a road trip between Rawalpindi and Lahore. It is next to Yadgar Chowk in Jhelum. (I hail from District Jhelum but never lived in the city).

I read the book for the first time when I was in high school in mid seventies.. A chapter of it entitled “Yagistan say wapsi’ was in our syllabus. We had the book at home.

The book was a household name in those days. It reads like a suspense novel, a mesmerizing account of a young government official, 23 years of age, in the remote parts of the then- British India’s NWFP. In 1910, he was kidnapped on gunpoint for ransom and taken away across the mountains to Khost in Afghanistan. It is the account of those 45 days of captivity and the escape. In a very poetic way, and the prose sprinkled with Urdu and Persian verses, he describes his abduction, the journey on foot as a captive, along with his kidnappers, avoiding daylight and population, to finally reach the area out of British control. The story goes on how he is treated by the captors, the ransom and its negotiations, dealing with different characters in the village including Naik Namay a lady who develops a soft corner for him (and vice versa) , and finally how he runs away along with his fellow captive Lala Sunder Lal.

Mohammad Akram Siddiqui had engineering education from Mayo college of Arts (now NCA Lahore) and was an employee of MES (Military Engineering Service).  He was posted in District Bannu in the Tochi area. On that fateful day he was travelling back to Bannu from Miranshah in a private Tumtum with the contractor Lala Sunder Lal, as he missed the official Dak Tanga. They see the security detail on mountain tops retiring as a European passenger crosses their path, noting the extra protection to White officials but not for Desi personnel. They drop a lucky fellow traveler along the way. As soon they turn a fateful corner they are ambushed and kidnapped at gunpoint.

The horse carriage is abandoned along with the horses. It is too much to take them along a long journey. The carriage driver is let go after a little while, not because he is a fellow Pashtun but because he has no money.

It is a thriller. The negotiations fail, partly because his own family does not have the money being asked for and his employer, the British Raj is interested in getting him freed for free through negotiations with Afghan Government. Under pressure for the Afghan government, the captors are advised by the profit sharing intermediaries to ‘get rid’ of the captives. He hears the decision which is essentially their death sentence. That is when they decide to run away, a plan they had been hatching for a while.

They are able to get rid of their chains and run away in darkness. They get separated and reach safe haven through different paths. He does not get the kind of response he expected from the British masters. The highest ranking British officer Mr. Donald (Later Sir John Stuart Donald, Chief Commissioner of NWFP) gave just ten rupees and when Mr Akram declined to accept that, gave another ten rupees.

The language in the book, written in around 1912 for the first time and had several editions, may not be very politically current in so many ways. It uses the term Pathan which is now considered improper. Some characterization of certain communities are mentioned as 'facts'.

He is very well aware of the culture and draws a very clear line trying to avoid the prejudices one would have easily fallen to. He describes these farraris (fugitives) who had ‘run away’ from the British controlled homeland and adopted the ‘profession’ of abduction. Their targets were either British nationals, their employees (irrespective of their religion, Hindu or Muslim) and Non-Muslims. These farraris, outlaws, considered it sanctioned by their religion to do that. They did make a distinction not to abduct the Muslims who were not servants of the British Raj. At the same time, they abided by a certain standard of chivalry, taking care of the human needs of their captives and their religious concerns. They did torture the captives to make sure that the news reached their relatives and prompted an eagerness to come up with ransom.

There is very literary description of the individuals, the captors and all other players, the scenes, the emotions, and the drama of the story.

In the Zinda Kitabain edition, published last year, there are a few appendices. There is a long article by the author’s daughter, about the life of Mr Siddiqui. It tells us about the man behind the book in a larger way than the episode which defined his life.  He quitted the job after a while; he was dismayed at the response of the British Raj to his abduction and wanted to leave earlier than that. He had a successful life as a construction magnate in Lahore Cantonment. He built and owned many buildings including the one Rahat Building, now home of the famous Rahat Bakery, for example. He was involved in the Pakistan Movement at local level.

There is additional chapter of his later-in-life-travel to the same area, in 1960’s. It was nostalgic, but he felt depressed that the culture of abductions and ransom had not gone away with Independence but continued and now fellow Muslims, and sometimes even females, were the targets; as the non-Muslim rulers and their non-Muslim subjects have gone away.

I feel a close personal connection with the story. It could very well have been my grandfather, or his sons, including my father. The author is about the age of my grandfather, a few years younger. My grandfather was a mid-level employee in British Raj and served in Rawalpindi and Murree. My uncle had served as a lecturer in Islamia College Peshawar and later as a Principal in Bannu and Mardan. My father was working in Military Accounts in Razmak at the time of Partition. I have lived early part of my life in Abbottabad, Kohat and Nowshera. I travelled uncountable times through Dara Adam Khel, the famous firearms producing tribal agency between Kohat and Peshawar in my early life.

Much had changed since 1910, but still not that much when I was growing up. People were still abducted for ransom and taken to the areas which are not under direct control of the government.  One of my elementary school classmate was kidnapped while I was a fifth or sixth grader.

 All said, the book reading was nostalgic to me. It took me back in time, to my childhood and to the times and places of of my elders.

Thanks to the Atlantis Publications and Zinda Kitabain series for the revival of this classic.