Hassan Nasir

Hassan Nasir (1 January 1928 – 13 November 1960) was a Pakistani proletarian leader, Secretary General of the proscribed Communist Party of Pakistan (CPP) and Office Secretary in the National Awami Party. Hasan Nasir was born in Hyderabad (Deccan) and had fought, along with Makhdoom Mohiuddin and others, in the Telangana Peasants’ Revolt against the Razakars.

Early life Nasir was a maternal grandson of Nawab Mohsin-ul-Mulk, one of the founders of the All-India Muslim League. After completing college, he was admitted into the University of Cambridge in England where he came into contact with various Marxist ideologues and soon became inspired by the rhetoric he heard. Upon his return to India, he joined forces with the oppressed Hindu peasants of Telangana and took part in anti-colonial uprisings to the chagrin of his bourgeoisie family.

Death In 1960, he was arrested in Karachi and put in a cell in the Lahore Fort and brutally tortured till he died. He died while under interrogation in Lahore Fort, a detention centre established by the Martial-Law regime of Ayub Khan. After his murder his mangled body was hastily buried by the police. The reports of torture were frightening and succeeded in halting the protests for several months. There was such a fervor over his martyrdom that the President Ayub Khan government had to exhume his body to attempt to prove to the prosecution point that he had committed suicide and was not tortured. Today, there remains nothing of that cell, where he was killed, except a wall containing a small window.

References in literature and popular culture Sibte Hassan in his book Sher-e-Nigaran briefly discussed Hasan Nasir Maj. Ishaq Muhammad in his book Hassan Nasir Ki Shahdat