Havaldar Rahmat Khan – Another forgotten Chitrali hero

By Prof Mumtaz Hussain CHITRAL, Dec 16: The other day, walking through the Bazaar of Chitral, I was surprised to see a green coat with our national colour on it, hanging in a second-hand clothing shop. I went in, to have a closer look, and to see who has sold out this thing into the Landa Bazaar. I asked the shopkeeper to take down the coat but he politely said that it was not for sale. I was more surprised to hear this, and asked why. “Because it is my own,” said the shopkeeper shyly. “And who are you” was my question. Then I came to know that this poor second-hand clothing vendor was sometimes a sportsman, who represented the nation in athletic competitions for more than a decade. Rahmat Khan was born in the small hamlet of Yukum in the remote Yarkhun Valley of Chitral in 1962. He didn’t go to school, simply because there was none in his village. He spent his early youth, wandering in the rugged mountains, tending goats. He grew up a well-built man and went to the down-country in search of a living. Fortunately, he came across some army recruiting team and was selected for the 16th Punjab Regiment of Pakistan Army. As Rangroot (recruit), he was sent to the Regimental Centre in Mardan for initial training. In the centre, the trainers saw in him a sportsman, and on the completion of the training, he was inducted in the army in 1979. The hardy mountain man was ideal for cross-country race and marathons. During the early 80s, he started his career in the Inter-Unit Competitions, then stepped up to Inter Services Championships. Rahmat Khan’s first appearance at the national sports scene was in 1983, when he was included in the Pakistan Army Squad for the National Games held in Karachi. He won one after other race, and was finally picked-up for the National squad. Rahmat Khan ran with the National Colour in athletic competitions world over. He himself remembers very little of these events. What I could muster from his certificates, pictures and medals, is that he carried the National Colour in Singapore, China, India, Kuwait, Nepal, Germany, Iran and the UK. He was in the Pakistan Squad in the 1989 SAF Games held in Islamabad. Today he lives on the pension from the Army and his small shop of second-hand clothing. He is still a healthy and fit man. If he lived in another country, at least he would have been engaged as a sports trainer. Here in this country, nobody knows about him. Even he himself seems to be forgetful of most of his gloriously past, because the past has contributed very little to his present.]]>