Pakhtuns in Bengal, India.

[Bengal_Tiger]

Afghan O Ami!
Two women in Kolkata yearn for US triumph in the war

Kabul to Kolkat is nearly 3,000 kilometres and the two cities are even more distant socially and culturally. But for two women in Kolkata, the land, the land is close to their hearts, One of them, Yasmin Nigar Khan, is an Afgan by descent who has lived all her life in India. The other, Sushmita banerjee, is an Afghan by marriage who escaped for dear life to Kolkata on the eve of Tabibanisation of Afghanistan. Both are waiting with nervousness at the outcome of US-led Operation Enduring Freedom.

Yasmin, president of the all India Pakhtoon Jirga-e-Hind, wants the land of her forefathers to be returned to Pakhtoons, who she claims are the real Afghans. "The Taliban are not real Afghans," she said. "They are all Pakistanis."

Yasmin succeeded her father as president of the organisation and the Pakhtoons in India have found a natural choice in her. she is the eldest of sex children of Lala Jan Khan, whose great-uncle was Khan Abdul Gaffar Khan, popularly known as the Frontier Gandhi.

"Nehruji and my great grandfather [Gaffar khan] wanted a separate homeland for the Pakhtoons," said Yasmin. "But Punjabi-dominated Pakistan was against it and threw the leaders of the Red Shirts, who fought for Pakhtoonistan, in jail. To keep alive the spirit of the movement, my father came over to India and settled down in Kolkat."

Jan Khan came to Kolkata in 1948 when he was 18. It then had the biggest concentration of Pathans, or Pakhtoons, in India.

Yasmin came to know from her father-who died in 1996- that in the early 1990s there were about 32 lakh Pathans in India. Most of them were in West Bengal, Bihar and Assam. "There are about 500 members of the All India Pakhtoon Jirga-e-Hind in Kolkata now,"she said.

Yasmin, who is also the vice-chair-person of the Khudai Khidmatgar foundation, backs India's afghanistan policey.(Khudai Khidmatgar or Servants of god was an organisation founded by the Frontier Gandhi.) According to her, by supporting the US and the Burhanuddin Rabbani government of the Northern Alliance, India has favoured the cause of Afghanistan. "Pathans feel safe in India," she said.

However, Yasmin is unhappy the modern India forgot the contribution of gaffar Khan. to keep alive his memory, Yasmin and younger siter Taji opened the Frontier Gandhi Missionary School at their rented house in Elliot Lane a year ago. The sesters run the primary school, which doesn't get any government help, from the income they earn as teachers in other schools. Yasmin, commerce graduate from Calcutta University, is a teacher in Central Kolkata School.

Yasmin and Taji are wedded to their cause. "We are waiting to get married till our dream for the Pakhtoon homeland is fulfilled," she said

http://www.escglobal.com/taliban/press_frame.html

[Bengal_Tiger]

From this article we can see:

1. 32 Lakh Pathans in India most near Bangladesh i.e. West Bengal and Assam (both of which border Bangladesh) and Bihar.

32 lakh =3.2 million, however other figures show far higher numbers of Pathans in India ("Pathan" = person of Pashtun ancestry).

2. Kolkata capital of West Bengal and former capital of the whole of Bengal had the highest number of Pakhtuns in the 1930s according to Jan Khan, nephew of Badshah Khan (rahmatullahi alaih).





Assam in blue.
3.

"There are about 500 members of the All India Pakhtoon Jirga-e-Hind in Kolkata now,"

500 Pathans in Bengal,(Kolkata, West Bengal) as part of the All India Pakhtoon Jirga e Hind.

However in Bangladesh there are far more, because there are more Muslims and the Bangladeshi population is far bigger.

There is no Pashtun association in Bangladesh unfortunately, nor is there any centre. I hope that in the future we can have some sort of Afghan/Pashun cultural centre in Dhaka or a Bacha Khan centre with:

- Prayer facilities with Qurans.
- Library including books on Pashtun culture and history including translations of the works of Baba Ajmal Khattak and others, biographies of the great Pashtun rulers such as Isa Khan (rahmatullahi alaih).
- Courses for learning Bengali and Pashto.
- A Pashtun-Bengali chamber of commerce to help our brothers in Pekhawar, Mardan, Kohat and elsewhere.
- Course in Pashtun history and Bengali history including the Pashtun rulers of Bengal, Badshah Khan, Wali Khan and so forth.

There is a Turkish-Bangladesh Chamber of Commerce and Industry, www.tbcci.net

[Bengal_Tiger]

The TBCCI promote Bangladesh-Turkish business and friendship.



President Gul in Dhaka, speaking at the TBCCI. Ankara wants to increase trade with Dhaka to $1 billion.





Turkish-Bengali friendship in the opening meeting of the TBCCI, hopefully sometime in the future it will be Pashtuns and Bengalis taking pictures together.



Bangladeshi and Turkish businessmen in Istanbul together.



I hope that in the future Pashtun brothers will visit Bangladesh insha'Allah.

[Bengal_Tiger]

They can come and see Pashtun-built mosques and other relics from Pashtun rulers and kingdoms in Bangladesh.



Mosque of Musa Khan, a Pashtun descendant of Sulaiman Khan who was born in the Sulaiman Mountains but moved to Bengal.

Or see the natural beauty of the country.



Cox's bazar beach.



Cox's bazar, Bangladesh.



Jessore, Bangladesh.





Dhaka.