Hyderabad: This day, seventy one years ago, a patriot and freedom fighter, Shoebullah Khan was shot dead and his right hand was chopped off on 22nd August 1948 by the Razakars led by Qasim Rizvi, the then MIM chief.
Shoebullah Khan was the editor of Imroz, the Urdu daily published from Hyderabad in those days. He was in favour of the merger of Hyderabad into the Union of India. He wrote an article against Mir Osman Ali Khan, Nizam VII who was delaying for the merger of Hyderabad.
Mr. Qasim Rizvi had assigned the task of killing Shoebullah to Khader Aseer.
Since Shoebullah Khan was continuously writing against the Nizam of Hyderabad which invited the anger of Qasim Rizvi
Shoebullah Khan also opposed the plan of Qasim Rizvi who advocated maintaining the independent status of Hyderabad
Mr. Qasim Rizvi and four of his Razakars were arrested on the charge of killing Shoebullah Khan.
The special tribunal which heard this case convicted Mr. Qasim Rizvi and others but High Court exonerated them later.
On the fateful day, Shoebullah Khan was returning home when two persons met his at Bagh Lingampally. The murderer first started talking to Shoebullah Khan. The other person went behind Shoebullah Khan and shot him with a gun.
His right hand was also chopped off. Shoebullah Khan died two hours after the incident took place.
Dept. of Journalism of Osmania University instituted a gold medal for the top student of BC J. A memorial library was also setup at Malakpet.
Four decades later, Govt. of Hyderabad sanctioned freedom fighter’s pension to his widow.