Australian man searches for Swabi roots

Steven Khan seeks ancestral home and relatives in Yaqubi

SWABI:

Steven Khan, a resident of Australia and grandson of Samandar Khan, who is believed to have migrated to Australia from Yaqubi village in present-day Swabi district around 1890 or 1900, is searching for his ancestral home and family roots in the area.

Steven Khan has contacted Dr Saleem Abdullah, a professor at Abdul Wali Khan University Mardan, for assistance in tracing his ancestral village and family connections.

According to a post circulating on social media, Samandar Khan belonged to Yaqubi village, which at the time was part of Mardan district and Kalu Khan Union Council. During the British rule in the Indian subcontinent, he reportedly travelled to Australia in search of employment.

Sources said Samandar Khan was among the people from the subcontinent who worked with and reared camels in the Australian outback. During that period, a number of people from British India travelled to Australia to work in the camel trade and related occupations.

Samandar Khan eventually settled in Australia, where his descendants have continued to live. More than a century later, his grandson Steven Khan is now attempting to trace his family's ancestral village, relatives and the home of his forefathers.

Dr Saleem Abdullah has appealed to residents of Yaqubi, Yar Hussain, Kalu Khan and surrounding areas to examine the photographs circulating on social media and seek information from elderly family members who may know about Samandar Khan.

He said anyone possessing information about Samandar Khan, including details of his family, relatives or ancestral home, should share it with him. Even a small piece of information, he added, could help an Australian family reconnect with its ancestral land and discover the home of its forefathers.

Dr Abdullah urged local residents to play their part in helping descendants of those who left the region more than a century ago reconnect with their ancestral homeland.