Pakistani intellectual
Agha Shorish Kashmiri (1917–1975; آغا شورش کاشمیری) was a Pakistani scholar, writer, debater, and a leader of the Majlis-e-Ahrar-e-Islam party. He was a figure of the freedom movement in the British Raj, as well as the chief editor of the weekly Chattan magazine in Pakistan.[1]
Early life and career
Kashmiri started his political career in 1935 when he delivered a historical speech at the Shaheed Ganj Mosque conference when Maulana Zafar Ali Khan was serving as the President of Ahrar Party, India. He was a student of Maulana Zafar Ali Khan but was disappointed by the violence at the Shaheed Ganj Mosque in 1935.[2]
Kashmiri was impressed by Chaudhry Afzal Haq as well, who was a political leader of the Indian sub-continent, so he joined All-India Majlis-e-Ahrar-e-Islam and the struggle for Ahrar Party. Kashmiri was also impressed by his religious and political teacher (teacher meaning murshad in the Urdu language) Ameer-e-Shariyyat Syed Ata Ullah Shah Bukhari.[3]
Kashmiri was elected as Secretary-General of All-India Majlis-e-Ahrar-e-Islam in 1946. He played a role in Tehreek-e-Khatme Nabuwwat in 1974 during Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto's regime in Pakistan.[4]
In 2014, the Punjab governor in Pakistan, Chaudhry Muhammad Sarwar was speaking at a book-launching ceremony in Lahore. This book was written about the late Agha Shorish Kashmiri's life. The Punjab governor said that he was a great journalist who had exposed oppression everywhere. Journalists today can learn a lot from him. The governor said that Maulana Zafar Ali Khan's influence was reflected in Kashmiri's writings and Attaullah Shah Bukhari's influence in Kashmiri's speech.[5]
