Dear Editor,

I refer to M.K. Baksh's letter captioned "Pathans have been living in India from the earliest times".

The Kabul area was in ancient days a Hindu kingdom. The areas the Pathans occupy are further West and North of Kabul. Hindus never laid their feet in Pathan areas. (Now you see why they are called the Hindu Kush (Hindu Killer) mountains). The migration of Pathans into the Indian subcontinent came many years later.

The Pathan homelands are situated around NWFP in Pakistan and in Afghanistan. No homeland was in present day India. Pathan mass migrations came when such rulers as Ibrahim Lodhi and Ahmed Shah Durrani(Abdali) came through and invaded the native Indian Hindus and built lavish palaces, baths etc. Many of their soldiers stayed in India and created townships. Among the soldiers enlisted were other Afghan minorities such as Tajik, Uzbek, Hazara, Turkomen. Pathans were the governors of these towns.

Afghan and Pathan do have different meanings. Afghanistan is a land of many groups of people. Look up any old documents and you will find Pathans are much different from their counterparts in Kabul.

Pathans are known for their fierce tribal affairs and resistance to anyone opposing them. Ghenghis Khan, Alexander the Great, the many Rajas of India, The Sikh Commander Hari Singh were never able to conquer these Pathans in their native areas of the Kyber.