Faqir of Ipi

Haji Mirzali Khan
حاجي میرزاعلي خان
Bornc. 1897
Kirta Khajuri, Mirali, North Waziristan, British Raj
Died16 April 1960(1960-04-16) (aged 62–63)
Gurwek, North Waziristan, Pakistan
Resting placeGurwek, North Waziristan, Pakistan
Known for
ParentSheikh Arsala Khan

Haji Mirzali Khan Wazir (Pashto: حاجي میرزاعلي خان وزیر), commonly known as the Faqir of Ipi (فقير ايپي), was a tribal chief and adversary to the British Raj from North Waziristan in what is now Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan.[1][2]

After performing his Hajj pilgrimage in 1923, Mirzali Khan settled in Ipi, a village located near Mirali in north Waziristan, from where he started a campaign of guerrilla warfare against the British Empire. In 1938, he shifted from Ipi to Gurwek, a remote village in north Waziristan on the border with Afghanistan, where he propagated idea of an independent state, Pashtunistan, and continued his raids against the British, using bases in Afghanistan.[3] He had the support of Nazi Germany in his warfare against British Raj.[4][5]

On 21 June 1947, the Faqir of Ipi, along with his allies including the Khudai Khidmatgars and members of the Provincial Assembly, declared the Bannu Resolution which demanded that the Pashtuns should be given a third choice to have an independent state of Pashtunistan.[6] The British government refused to comply with this demand.[7][8]

After the independence of Pakistan in August 1947, Afghanistan and India financially sponsored the Pashtunistan movement under the leadership of the Faqir of Ipi.[9] He started the guerilla warfare against the new nation's government.[10] However, he couldn't succeed and his resistance diminished in the early 1950s.[11]

  1. ^ Shaista Wahab and Barry Youngerman (2007). A Brief History of Afghanistan. Infobase publishing. ISBN 9781438108193.
  2. ^ "How British empire failed to tame Fakir of Ipi". The Telegraph. Retrieved 15 November 2001.
  3. ^ Stewart, Jules (2007-02-22). Savage Border: The Story of the North-West Frontier. The History Press. ISBN 9780752496078.
  4. ^ Motadel, David (2014-11-30). Islam and Nazi Germany's War. Harvard University Press. ISBN 9780674724600.
  5. ^ Bose, Mihir (2017-01-20). Silver: The Spy Who Fooled the Nazis: The Most Remarkable Agent of the Second World War (in Arabic). Fonthill Media.
  6. ^ "Past in Perspective". The Nation. August 25, 2019. Retrieved August 25, 2019.
  7. ^ Ali Shah, Sayyid Vaqar (1993). Marwat, Fazal-ur-Rahim Khan (ed.). Afghanistan and the Frontier. University of Michigan: Emjay Books International. p. 256.
  8. ^ H Johnson, Thomas; Zellen, Barry (2014). Culture, Conflict, and Counterinsurgency. Stanford University Press. p. 154. ISBN 9780804789219.
  9. ^ Malik, Hafeez (2016-07-27). Soviet-Pakistan Relations and Post-Soviet Dynamics, 1947–92. Springer. ISBN 9781349105731.
  10. ^ The Faqir of Ipi of North Waziristan. The Express Tribune. November 15, 2010.
  11. ^ The legendary guerilla Faqir of Ipi unremembered on his 115th anniversary. The Express Tribune. April 18, 2016.