Ashfaqulla Khan اشفاق اللہ خان (October 22, 1900 - December 19, 1927) was a great freedom fighter in Indian independence movement.

Ashfaq ullaah Khan (October 22, 1900 - December 19, 1927)

Ashfaqulla Khan اشفاق اللہ خان (October 22, 1900 - December 19, 1927) was a great freedom fighter in Indian independence movement.
Ashfaqulla Khan was born in Shahjahanpur, Uttar Pradesh. His father, Shafiqur Rahman was posted in the police department. His mother's name was Mazharunissa. Ashfaqullah was the youngest amongst his six siblings. Ashfaq was in school when Mahatma Gandhi called the Non-Cooperation Movement.

After Mahatma Gandhi withdrew the Non-Cooperation Movement after the Chauri Chaura incident, many Indian youths were left dejected.Ashfaq was one of them. He felt that India should become free as soon as possible and so he decided to join the revolutionaries and also win the friendship of Pandit Ram Prasad Bismil, a famous revolutionary of Shahjahanpur.

Pandit Ram Prasad Bismil, a member of the Arya Samaj, was eager to explain the greatness of the Hindu religion to those belonging to other religions, though he never bore any prejudice against any religious community, and so, Ashfaq who was a devout Muslim befriended him, and they both had the common objective of a free, united India. Nevertheless, the common goal of Pandit Ram Prasad Bismil and Ashfaq was India's freedom. This helped him to win over the friendship of Pandit Ram Prasad Bismil. They died on the same day, as martyrs for India, but in different jails.

The revolutionaries felt that soft words of non violence could not win India its Independence and therefore they wanted to make use of bombs, revolvers and other weapons to instill fear in the hearts of the British empire. The British Empire was large and strong. The withdrawal of the non cooperation movement united revolutionaries scattered in the country. This revolutionary movement required money to support its need. One day while traveling on a train from Shahjanpur to Lucknow Ram Prasad noticed stationmaster bringing money bags into the guards van. This was a beginning of a Dacoity called Kakori train robbery.

To give a fillip to their movement and buy arms and ammunition to carry out their activities, the revolutionaries organised a meeting on August 8, 1925 in Shahjahanpur. After a lot of deliberations it was decided to loot the government treasury carried in the trains. On 9 August 1925 Ashfaqulla and other revolutionaries, namely Pandit Ram Prasad Bismil, Rajendra Lahiri, Thakur Roshan Singh, Sachindra Bakshi, Chandrashekar Azad, Keshab Chakravarthy, Banwari Lal, Mukundi Lal, Manmathnath Gupta looted the train carrying British government money in Kakori near Lucknow.

On the morning of 26 September 1925, Pandit Ram Prasad Bismil was caught by the police and Ashfaq was the only one untraced by the police. Ashfaq went into hiding and moved to Banaras from Bihar where he worked in an engineering company for 10