February 6 marks the 131st birth anniversary of Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan, legendary Pashtun freedom fighter and pacifist a Pakhtun or Pathan from the North West Frontier Province, now called Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

 Frontier Gandhi, as Ghaffar Khan was popularly known, led a non-violent movement against the British in the province.

His historic movement, Khudai Khidmatgar, was launched to overcome poverty and banish the British from India. He was, till the end of the freedom struggle, for a united India. The Khudai Khidmatgars were also commonly known as the ‘Red Shirts’ .

Leading the Khudai Khidmatgars, he firmly believed in the idea of an unpartitioned united India, where Hindus and Muslims would live together in harmony away from the tyranny of British colonial rule.

He was awarded the Bharat Ratna in 1987 by the Government of India for his contributions to the Indian freedom struggle and subsequently for better relations between the two countries.