The Afghan Martyrs — Page 34
Ancestral Background Hadhrat Sahibzada Abdul Lateef came from a village called 'Syed Gah' situated on the bank of the river Shamal in the province of Khost in Afghanistan. His ancestor Syed Saeed Ahmad who migrated from Saharanpur had established this village. Syed Gah was surrounded by a solid towering wall through which there were two gates, one in the east and the other in the west. Right in the middle was a wide road on both sides of which were residences belonging to the family of the Sahibzada. It was a very fertile region and there were many orchards full of fruit trees, most of which had been transplanted from saplings brought from Kabul. Baskets of assorted fruits were regularly presented to the Governor and other chiefs of the region. After the martyrdom of the Sahibzada life in Syed Gah underwent a rapid change. His opponents razed houses and destroyed the orchards and they set fire to the rest of the village after plundering it. Syed Gah was then in complete ruins and consisted only of a bunch of demolished empty houses. He was a member of a Syed family. His father, Moulana Syed Mohammad Shareefwas a descendent of Data Gunj Bakhsh Syed Ali Hajwairi (MAPH). During the reign of Emperor Aurangzaib a famous senior antecedent of the family settled in Saharanpur and then another prominent member of the family, Syed Saeed Ahmad, went to Khost in Afghanistan for educational purposes and decided to settle there. Syed Mohammad Tayyab, a son of the Sahibzada says: IIAn early ancestor, Syed Ahmad Saeed, came to Khost from Saharanpur for education and here he established a village named Syed Gah. This is where he married and this then became the 34