Ashfaqulla Khan Death Anniversary: Ashfaqulla Khan was a freedom fighter, poet and Kakori martyr. Not only did he fight for freedom, but he has many poems that still inspire us to do revolutionary things. Revolutionary freedom fighter Ashfaq Ullah Khan was born on 22 October 1900 to Mazrunissa in Shahjahanpur, Uttar Pradesh, while martyred on 19 December 1927. Today is his 94th birth anniversary.
Ashfaq Ullah Khan was the youngest of six siblings. In the year 1920, Mahatma Gandhi started the non-cooperation movement against the British rule in India. But after the Chauri Chaura incident in the year 1922, Mahatma Gandhi withdrew the movement. After this Ashfaq Ullah Khan formed the Hindustan Republican Association in 1924 with like-minded freedom fighters.
The aim of the Hindustan Republican Association was to organize an armed revolution to achieve independence in India. On 9 August 1925, Ashfaq Ulla Khan along with his revolutionary companions Ram Prasad ‘Bismil’, Rajendranath Lahiri, Roshan Singh, Shachindranath Bakshi, Chandrashekhar Azad, Keshav Chakraborty, Banwari Lal, Banwari Lal, Murari Sharma, Mukundi Lal and Manmathnath Gupta joined together in Lucknow. He looted the treasury of the British government going by train at Kakori near Kakori.
The British government started looking for the robbers after the treasury was looted, but even after a month, no robber of the train was arrested. Meanwhile, on the morning of 26 October 1925, the British caught Bismil by the police. While Ashfaq Ullah Khan was the only one whose police could not find any hole. He hid from Bihar and moved to Banaras, where he worked in an engineering company for 10 months.
Ashfaq Ullah Khan wanted to go abroad for further engineering studies so that the freedom struggle could be carried forward. He went to Delhi to leave the country. He took the help of a Pathan friend of his who had earlier been his classmate. However, his friend betrayed him and told his whereabouts to the police. After which the police came to his house on the morning of 17 July 1926 and arrested him.
Bismil, Khan, Rajendra Lahiri and Thakur Roshan Singh were sentenced to death in the Kakori dacoity case. While the other 16 people were sentenced from four years imprisonment to life imprisonment. Ashfaq Ullah Khan was hanged on 19 December 1927 in Faizabad Jail. Due to his revolutionary personality, love, clear thinking, unshakable courage, determination and loyalty, he was considered a martyr for the people. Khan is still remembered for his contribution to the Indian independence movement.