Poetess Alaf Jana Khattak passes away, buried in Karak

KARAK: Poetess Alaf Jana Khattak who was also a Khudai Khidmatgar Movement activist passed away after protracted illness at the age of 88 in her native village Ahmadi Banda in Banda Daud Shah.

According to her family sources, she was attacked by Cerebral Vascular Accident (CVA) about two weeks ago and was admitted to a hospital in Peshawar for some days. However, she died at the hospital and her body was taken to Karak district. She was laid to rest at her ancestral graveyard in Ahmadi Banda. A large number of people including ANP leaders, elected representatives of the district and people from different walks of life attended her funeral. Former ANP district President Usman Khattak said that Alaf Jana Khattak was born in 1931. He said that she had been an active member of Khudai Khidmatgar movement founded by freedom fighter Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan (Bacha Khan). She was a known Pashto poetess.

Her poetry and columns used to be published in a Pashto journal of Khudai Khidmatgar Tehreek. A girls’ degree college had been established at Banda Daud Shah by the ANP govt in KP during its rule from 2008-2013 and named after Alaf Jana Khattak.