Sahibzada Abdul Latif (1853 – July 14, 1903) was an Afghan of Khost. He was born in Sayed Ga of Tani District in Khost Province, Afghanistan in 1853, to Sahibzada Mohmmad Shareef. He had two brothers, Sahibzada Abdul Aziz and Sahibzada Abdul Haleef. He is often called the Sayyed-ul-Shuhada (leader of the Martyrs) within the Ahmadiyya community.
Sahibzada Abdul Latif was called Raees-e-Kabul (wealthiest of Kabul). He used to own 400,000 kanals of land in Tani in Khost, and belonged to the village Sayed Ga. He was a learned man, and knew such languages as Arabic, Persian, and Pushto. He had visited Hoshiarpur, and frequented Deoband Markaz in Hyderabad, India.
He was the Royal Advisor on the European influence in Afghanistan to both Amir Abdur Rahman Khan, 1880 to 1901, and to his son Amir Habibullah Khan, 1901–1919, the kings of Afghanistan. Sahibzada Abdul Latif was an eminent member of the Ulama of Afghanistan. He had great influence on the kings of Afghanistan and its darbar; as claimed by Sahibzada Zahoor Ahmad, he had the honour to place the Afghan amir's crown on the head of Amir Habibullah Khan himself on the eve of his coronation in 1901.[1]
He claimed to be the direct descendant of the renowned Islamic saint Data Ganj Baksh, who is buried in Lahore. He heard about Mirza Ghulam Ahmad of Qadian when Mirza claimed to be the "Promised Messiah", and Mahdi, and established Ahmadiyya Movement on 23 March, 1889.
As he was in the king's court, he could not go himself, so he sent his colleague and friend Maulvi Abd ur-Rahman to Qadian, which is near Gurdaspur Punjab. Maulvi Abd ur-Rahman returned after having pledged his allegiance to Mirza Ghulam Ahmad of Qadian, and joining Ahmadi Movement, bringing with him some books written by Mirza and his Ahmadi Movement's publications from Qadian for him to read. He became Ahmadi after reading this book.
In 1902, Sahibzada Abdul Latif himself visited Qadian near Gurdaspur, after he took permission from Amir Habibullah Khan, for Haj to Mecca. Instead, he went to Qadian on his way, and he publicly announced his allegiance to the Ahmadiyya movement, publicly offering Bay'ah to Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, which he did not before.[2]
He was able to convert before 1902; many tribesmen of Tani in the province of Khost started to become Ahmadi, which enabled him to earn the ire and punishment of death by stoning from Amir Habibullah Khan. The final nail in the coffin was placed after he published an article about the Ahmadiyya's peculiar and signature views on jihad in Kabul. He banned jihad against the British occupiers, who were supposedly enemies of Afghans.
He was sentenced to death by Amir Habibullah Khan on 14 July 1903. On 14 July 1903, he was stoned and killed, after he was buried half underground, by the order of Amir Habibullah Khan, for belonging to the Ahmadiyya movement and opposing jihad against British. He is the second recognized martyr of the Ahmadi community. Mirza Ghulam Ahmad has written books on him and his killing.
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The killing of Ahmadis in Kabul started in 1901, and then continued intermittently till 1924.[3] Since then, no more Ahmadis have been reported in Afghanistan, but a possibility of their existence remains.[4]
The Maulvi Abdur Rehaman was also condemned to death by Habibullah Khan, and had to flee to Turkistan, near China, but came back after his family was jailed by Amir Habibullah Khan.[5] In fact, Prince Nasrullah Khan, the brother of Amir Habibullah Khan, was also angry at him for being blasphemous, Ahmadi, and pro-British. The Ahmadis regard his role as instrumental in convincing Amir Habibullah Khan to punish him, and court clergy was also in favour of killing him.
The Ahmadi community claims turmoil occurred in Afghnistan because of the Great Game from 1903 onwards, like the Third Afghan War of 1919, to overthrow of Amir Amanullah Khan in 1929, or Operation Cyclone, of the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency, and the famous Afghan Jihad/Fourth Afghan War, or the Soviet war in Afghanistan, when Afghans and the Mujahideen fought with Soviet Union known as Operation Cyclone, in 1979, or the 2001 War on Terror, when USA bombed Afghanistan and created its bases; is because of the wrath of God after the killing of Sahibzada Abdul Latif and Maulivi Abdur Rehman Ahmadi.
About three million Afghan people died in Operation Cyclone, and later, millions more were killed in the Pakistan-sponsored Taliban rule from 1994-2001, and then by the USA Great Game, War Effort, later in 2001, also known as the Fifth Afghan War. The Ahmadi community claim that cholera broke out in Afghanistan immediately after killing of Sahibzada Abdul Latif, which killed Prince Nasrullah Khan's family and many others, after the water sources were infected.
Prince Nasrullah Khan was jailed after he was accused of killing Amir Habibullah Khan at a hunting trip, which Amadies claim is also part of the curse of God.[6]
In 1893, Sir Mortimer Durand negotiated with Abdur Rahman Khan, the Amir of Afghanistan. This international boundary line of Afghanistan and Pakistan, the Durand Line, is named after Mortimer Durand, and remains the international boundary between Afghanistan and modern-day Pakistan, officially recognised by most nations. However, it is an ongoing point of contention between the two countries.
In 1893, during the rule of Amir Abdur Rahman Khan of Afghanistan, a "Royal Commission for setting up of Boundary" set the Durand line between Afghanistan and the British-governed India. It was set up to negotiate terms with the British, for the agreeing to the Durand line Agreement, and the two parties camped at Parachinar, now part of FATA Pakistan, which is near Khost, Afghanistan.
From the British side, the camp was attended by Sir Mortimer Durand and Sahibzada Abdul Qayyum, Political Agent of Khyber.
Afghanistan was represented by Sahibzada Abdul Latif and the Governor Sardar Shireendil Khan, representing the King Amir Abdur Rahman Khan.[7]