Though the freedom struggle of 1857 was started by the Sepoys, but people from all walks of life took part in the war. Some scholars bade good bye to their pens and wielded swords to participate in the struggle for the independence of India. Moulvi Liyaqat Ali Khan was one of them.

He was born on 5 October, 1817 in a weavers family in Mahgaon village of Chayil Tahsil of Allahabad district, Uttarpadesh. His mother was Aminabi and father was Syed Mehar Ali. He acquired religious knowledge and developed anti-British attitude right from his childhood.

He joined British army and started indoctrinating anti-British ideas into the minds of  Indian soldiers. East India company officers sensed this and expelled him form the army.

Moulvi Liaqut Ali  resumed his activities from his native village Mahagao giving religious guidance to the people on one hand and exhorting them to wage a righteous war against the British to secure our lawful rights and to reinstall native rule on the other. He started uniting anti-British groups in Allahabad.

As his efforts  yielded  some result, he entered with his force Allahabad town, drove away East India Company force and officers and took control of the town. Moulvi  declared himself as the representative of Delhi Emperor Bahadur Shah Zafar and ran the administration of the town from Kouserbagh as his head quarters.

He wrote a song ‘Peyam-e-Amal’ exposing the misdeeds of the British rule and seeking Hindu-Muslim-Sikh unity besides inspiring patriotism among countrymen and particularly Indian soldiers in the British army. It was published in ‘Payam-e-Azadi’ an Urdu periodical edited by another freedom fighter Azeemullah Khan.

General Neill of East India Company  mobilised necessary forces and attacked  Liaquth Ali’s  head quarters on 11 June 1857. Moulvi fought the battle valiantly till the end but left the battle field on 17 June under  adverse circumstances.

The company officers announced a huge  reward on his head. Moulvi evaded capture for a period of 14 years. Later on, on a tip off from a traitor, he was captured by the British forces. In the trial that followed, he categorically declared that he had taken up arms only to emancipate his mother land from the yoke of  the British.

After the trial, Moulvi Liaqat Ali was sentenced to life imprisonment and was extradited to Andaman, where he breathed his last on 17 May, 1892.