The Hindu : Andhra Pradesh / Hyderabad News : Remembering a legend

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Saturday, Aug 23, 2008
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Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh - Hyderabad

Remembering a legend

HYDERABAD: The fearless and famous journalist, Shoebullah Khan, had to pay with his life on August 22 sixty years ago for writing against the Nizam in his daily ‘Imroze’, which was published from the house of former Chief Minister Burgula Ramakrishna Rao at Chappal Bazaar Crossroads.

Burgula’s nephew, Narsing Rao, who was eyewitness to the killing, recalls: “On that fateful night I said khuda hafiz (goodbye) to Shoeb, while closing the gate of our house. I was retreating into the house when I heard the sound of firing outside. I rushed out only to see some persons running towards Chappal Bazaar, while Shoeb and his brother-in-law lay in a pool of blood. The journalist’s right palm was cut off, as threatened by Majlis leader Qasim Razvi, and three bullets pumped into his chest. His brother-in-law’s left arm was chopped off by the assailants. (Shoeb lived across the road from the daily’s office). After the attack, he was taken to Osmania Hospital and operated upon, but did not survive. ”

Of course, the scribe did not fail to tell Mr. Rao babu, main ja raha hoon, even while he was semi-conscious, because of their interaction every evening.

“We used to sit late into the night in his office and interact.“ Shoeb was a protagonist of Indian nationalism and a bitter opponent of the two-nation theory as well as all forms of communalism. Gandhi, Nehru and Tagore were his trinity, whom he adored. Utterly fearless, he wrote with full conviction and commitment. Six decades later his images keep moving around me.”

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