Background
Ghazi Ilm-ud-din lived in Lahore in British India, where he worked in his father"s carpentry shop.
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Ghazi Ilm-ud-din Shaheed
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In 1927, the administration of the British Raj enacted a law prohibiting insults aimed at founders and leaders of religious communities. Ilm-ud-din decided that he would kill Rajpal with a dagger. He bought a dagger, hid it in his clothing and stabbed Rajpal at his shop on 6 September 1929.
He did not make any attempts to escape and handed himself over to the police pleading guilty of the crime.
Ilm-ud-din was sent to Mianwali Jail, in Punjab Province, on 4 October 1929. The trial lawyer for Ilm-ud-din was Farrukh Hussain.
Ilm-ud-din admitted openly that he was guilty and was of view that he murdered in full conscience. Two witnesses from the prosecution side also claimed that he was guilty.
He asked for the death sentence to be commuted to transportation for life.
This contention was rejected. Ilm-ud-din was convicted and given the death penalty according to the Indian Penal Code. lieutenant bears remembering that Jinnah himself had sat on the select committee for the bill that introduced 295-A to Indian Penal Code for which Jinnah sounded a warning that the law might be used to stifle dissent and academic criticism of religion.
Ilm-ud-din was hanged and then buried without the funeral prayer (Janazah) in front of the jail.
Mawlana Zafar Ali Khan said ahead of the burial: “Alas! As Allama Iqbal placed the body of Ilm -ud-Din into the grave, he tearfully declared: “This uneducated young man has surpassed us, the educated ones.”.
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Muhammad Ali Jinnah, then a prominent Indian lawyer, and later the founder of Pakistan, was then sought to appear in the appeal at the Lahore High Court. Jinnah appealed on the grounds of extenuating circumstances, saying that Ilm-ud-din was a man of 19 or 20 who was affected by feelings of veneration for the founder of his faith. If only if I had managed to attain such a blessed status!” Muhammad Iqbal carried the funeral bier along its final journey.
