DI Khan church still guards colonial memories

There are some places we pass every day without realising how much history they hold. They remain untapped until some visitors put their eyes on them.

During summer vacations, I travelled to Dera Ismail Khan, a district situated in southern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. It takes six hours from Lahore to arrive in this historic city. During my stay there, I came across one such place that immediately captured my attention, and I thought to write about it. It was St Thomas Church, sacred place of worship for Christian community. A large cross standing at the entrance, old rusty walls, and an ambience of spiritualism. But the Church showcased more than that. Its walls contain historical accounts of colonial past, the military campaigns led by British soldiers in this area and a grave of one Lieutenant Governor of Punjab.

St Thomas Church was built in 1856 during British rule in the Indian subcontinent. It is one of the oldest churches in present-day Pakistan.

It has survived political changes, the Partition of 1947, and the passing of time. Even today it stands as a symbol of the rich and diverse heritage of Dera Ismail Khan. The church is not only a place of worship but also a reminder that different faiths and communities have long been part of the history of this region.

As we walked inside, we met the old priest and caretaker of the church named Chand. He welcomed us warmly and narrated the remarkable history of this place. There are memorials of British soldiers who lost their lives in this region during military campaigns. The priest stood in front of each tablet inscribed on the church wall and briefed about it. One memorial narrates the names, ranks and units of one hundred and 69 British military officers and other ranks who were killed or died due to injuries or disease in Waziristan military campaigns launched between 1919 to 1921.

Another memorial lists details of sixty-eight officers and other ranks who met a similar fate during the 1936-1938 Waziristan military campaigns. Similarly, one tablet erected by friends and fellow officers mourns the death of Herbert Walter Gee, ICS, deputy commissioner of Dera Ismail Khan, who died in 1901. There are other memorials as well, erected by colleagues in memory of the fallen officers. I thought that these names contain historical accounts year by year about what happened in this part of the world at that time. Every sentence of the Priest carried a new story, such as how the church has witnessed a lot of happenings through generations and that it still serves the small Christian community living in Dera Ismail Khan.

As we stepped outside, believing our visit had come to an end, the priest said, “Wait. I have to show you one more thing.”

He took me to the back of the building, where I saw a large white grave standing quietly among the dusty bushes.

Here rests Lieutenant General Sir Henry Marion Durand (1812-1871).

Durdand – a quite familiar name for the people of Pakistan and Afghanistan.

Sir Durand was a career British military officer, diplomat, and administrator. He served in the East India Company Army, took part in several military campaigns, and later became the Lieutenant Governor of Punjab from 1870 to 1871. His son Sir Mortimer Durand is the one who drew the contours of the border between British India and Afghanistan in 1893. A man who once held such an important position now lies in silence behind an old church, while many people living nearby are unaware that his grave even exists.

Henry Marion Durand died in 1871 at the age of 58 from a tragic accident. He was visiting Nawab of Tank Shahnawaz Khan along with his daughter when he fell from an elephant. The elephant was passing through the gateway by the town of Tank with the Nawab on the same elephant and an official (Chaprassy). The gate was too low to cross an elephant with howdah. The howdah struck the walls of crossing and the elephant got frightened resulting in the fall of Durand. He remained unconscious for a few days and never recovered. He was buried beside St. Thomas’ Church in Dera Ismail Khan. The British suspected some conspiracy into this incident. One of descendent of Nawab Shahnawaz Khan says that The British launched an enquiry into it. But the daughter of Durand gave testimony in favour of the Nawab that it was just an accident and there was no fault on his part. However, as a punishment, the British authorities stripped the powers of Nawab Shahnawaz Khan in 1875 and sent him to Lahore under strict watch. He passed away in 1881 while under surveillance.

Standing beside the grave of Sir Henry Durand, I felt as if I had stepped into a forgotten chapter of history. The name engraved on the stone reminded me that many important events and personalities of the past remain connected to places that we often overlook. How easily history can fade from people’s memories, even when it is standing right in front of us.

As I left St Thomas Church, I felt that I had walked through a chapter of history that few people ever get to read. Sir Henry Durand ruled Punjab from this soil, and his son later sat across a table in Kabul and drew the line that still separates Afghanistan and Pakistan today. That line appears in newspapers and political debates all the time. Yet the grave of the man whose name it carries lies quietly behind a church in Dera Ismail Khan.