Dr. Abdul Hafiz, Ph.D., M.Sc., alias Dr. Hafiz, son of late Maulvi Ilahi Baksh, originally of Hoshiarpur but latterly of Lahore. He belongs to an Arain family which hails from Mohalla Namadgaran, Lahore and is connected with a well-known Baghbanpura family. He was a student of the Aligarh College where he made friends with the late Raja Ghulam Hussain of the "New Era,” and the Ali brothers. He went to England in 1904, where he took his M.Sc. degree from the Birmingham University and Ph. D. degree at Leipzig in 1914. While in England he is reported to have been very friendly with Har Dyal, Dhingra and others of the India House Party. He then went to Chicago, and on the outbreak of the war returned to Germany where he became a member of the Berlin Indian Committee. He was specially trained as a chemist by the Germans to organise assasination and sabotage outrages in allied countries with the aid of Italian anarchists, and in this connection was in Switzerland in 1915, but was expelled from that country at the end of the year. He was in charge of the branch of the Berlin Indian Committee in Constantinople in 1916, and in June of that year was sentenced in contumaciam in a bomb conspiracy case at Zurich to four years imprisonment and a fine of 2,000 francs. He was deputed to go to Afghanistan in March 1918 to supplement the work of the Von Hentig Mission, but his efforts were fruitless. He then specialised In the study of explosives at Constantinople, where he was said to have risen to the rank of a Captain and early in 1920 he was in Afghanistan from where he was suspected to have had relations with the Soviet Government. He returned to Europe to buy machinery for the Afghan Government and was reported to have been in Berlin and Vienna on various dates in 1920. In October 1920 he was believed to have been in Berlin and was proposed as a member of the Central Executive Committee of the Indian Revolutionaries in Europe. He was dismissed by the Kabul authorities in February 1923. In the same year his brother made an application for his return to India under full amnesty, but in view of his past record the request was refused. In 1924 he was reported to be in Germany and Vienna and drawing a monthly allowance from M. N. Roy for the maintenance of his family and to be intending to give up politics. In April 1925 certain proposals were put up to him by Maulvi Obeidulla, a pan-Islamist, for which Hafiz asked time to consider. The same year he was reported to have been approached by a Russian named Orloff to draw up a programme of work with Afghanistan as a base, and was asked to go to Persia or failing that to Bokhara in order to teach the art of manufacturing explosives. In 1926 he again made an application for permission to return to India, from Austria. About the beginning of 1930 he was reported to be the head Chemist of the Turkish Military Dept, in Constantinople, and to have promised assistance to the Ghadr Party in any way he could. In October 1931 the Secretary of State at the intervention of certain Muslim delegates to the R.T.C. recommended his return to India on condition of good behaviour, but in view of his association with M. N. Roy and the Ghadr Party, the Government of India felt his presence undesirable.

Description : Age about 45 years; wheat complexion; thin build; tall. His photograph is on record.