Amir Chand Bombwal

Who is Amir Chand Bombwal?

Pandit Amir Chand Bombwal was a journalist, a freedom fighter in the Indian independence movement, a Khudai Khidmatgar and a political leader of the Indian National Congress Party from Peshawar, North-West Frontier Province of British India. He was the founder, editor and publisher of a weekly newspaper called The Frontier Mail and a close associate of Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan. He lived from 8 August 1893 - 10 February 1972.

He was born to a Hindu Mohyal Brahmin family of Peshawar and was the son of Mehr Chand Bombwal. An active member of the Indian National Congress party, he was jailed for participation in the first Non-Cooperation Movement in 1921-23.

Upon release from jail, he worked to rehabilitate the refugees and victims of the 1924 Kohat riots. Mahatma Gandhi commended him for the service he provided to the riot victims.

After the Partition of India, he was arrested without charges, along with Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan and Dr. Khan Abdul Jabbar Khan by the founder of Pakistan, Mohammed Ali Jinnah who suspected them of undermining the accession of NWFP to Pakistan. They were jailed in Peshawar Central Jail and there was little hope for their release. Upon the death of Jinnah, Liaquat Ali Khan, who was on friendly terms with them, assumed the reins of power in Pakistan. Liaquat Ali Khan facilitated their release from jail, and transferred Bombwal to India in 1948, where he arrived on a flight carrying the ceasefire delegation of the Indo-Pakistani War of 1947 from Pakistan.