Hard to believe, but yes that’s the unfaked biography of this Banyan tree for past 100 years. The baffling weird story belongs to Landi Kotal army cantonment, Pakistan. The Banyan tree is holding captive with “I am under arrest” board.
Shocking, right???
For the last 100 years, this leashed tree has been chained in Khyber Agency, Pakistan. Back in 1898, a drunk British officer named James Squid thought that this tree is moving towards him. In order to teach tree a lesson, drunk officer asked the mess cops to arrest the tree.
Since then, tree has been put under arrest with a board hanging on it:-
This board reads:- “I am under arrest. One evening a British officer heavily drunk thought that I was moving from my original location and ordered mess sergeant to arrest me. Since then I am under arrest!”
The hidden story behind such unbelievable act
Albeit it sounds strange and dramatic incident, but there is a hidden motive behind it.
To scare the tribal residents, this act was done purposely. According to Amran Shinwani, the resident of the cantonment, the episode was performed consciously to threaten the tribesmen and never try to act against the Raj or else even they would be imprisoned in a similar way.
In literary words, the chained Banyan Tree stands for the Frontier Crimes Regulations. It’s a draconian colonial law which was made public by the Britishers in 1901 in response to Pashtun opposition to them. The law granted the government to punish the locals without any warrant for not following the rules.
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