Hyderabad: History books talk mostly of freedom fighters of north India when it comes to the First War of Independence, 1857. But two unsung heroes from Hyderabad led an armed rebellion, the first organised war against the British in south India, on July 17, 1857. This rebellion also led to a freedom fighter being sent to the Andamans jail for the first time in south India.The armed rebellion led by Turrebaz Khan and Moulvi Syed Alauddin not only rattled the British and the Nizam, but also led to emergence of at least two new localities in Hyderabad – Picket in Secunderabad and Troop Bazaar in Hyderabad. The British set up an armed picket for advance information and the area later came to be known as Picket. The Troop Bazaar was set up to meet the needs of newly reinforced army of the British. A cellular Jail-like prison was set up at Tirumalagiri.On this day (July 17) 169 years ago in 1857 Turrebaz Khan and Moulvi Alauddin took a group of about 500 armed people from Mecca Masjid in the old city to the British Residency in what is now Women’s College in Koti. Though Turrebaz Khan and Moulvi Alauddin made a tactical retreat after a night-long armed fight with the British soldiers on one hand, and the Nizam’s forces on the other, they were caught a couple of years later. While Turrebaz Khan was killed and his body kept hanging from a lamp post in Sultan Bazaar, Moulvi Alauddin was sent to Andaman jail where he spent more than 25 years till his death. He was the first few freedom fighters from India to be jailed in the Andamans post 1857 War of Independence.Such was the valour displayed by Turrebaz Khan that his name has become a legend for courage and resolve. People all over India know him by the corrupt form of his name – Turrum Khan.According to historian and author Syed Naseer Ahmad, Hyderabad despite being under the Nizams was among the first princely states in British India to raise the banner of revolt. The rebellion actually dates back to October 12, 1800, 57 years before the first war of Independence in 1857.“The Nizam entered into a subsidiary alliance treaty with the East India Company in 1800. As a result of this agreement, the Nizam’s dominion effectively became a British protectorate. Following this, several subsequent treaties enabled the British to exhibit dominance, arrogance, and endless interference within the Nizam state. Angered by these actions, common people as well as prominent figures began showing strong opposition to the British. This resentment reached its peak by the time of the First War of Indian Independence in 1857,” Syed Naseer Ahmad said.Marking the centenary of the attack on the British Residency, the govt in 1957 set up a memorial at Koti in honour of Turrebaz Khan, Moulvi Alauddin and other unnamed freedom fighters.Naseer Ahmad said Turrebaz Khan was captured by British-Nizam forces on July 22, 1857 and he was sentenced to deportation. But, on January 18, 1859 Turrebaz Khan escaped from the prison. A reward of Rs 5,000 was announced on his head on January 19, 1859. A local named Qurban Ali gave information to the British leading to his arrest in Toopran near Hyderabad on January 24, 1859. “The British resorted to absolute barbarism. They transported his martyred body to Hyderabad, denied him any funeral rites, bound him in heavy iron chains, and hung his body publicly from a wooden post,” Naseer Ahmad said.
