[8] Before the Babrra Massacre, the elected provincial government of Dr. Khan Sahib in the North-West Frontier Province was terminated by Muhammad Ali Jinnah, the Governor-General of Pakistan.

A Muslim League leader, Abdul Qayyum Khan Kashmiri, was appointed as the new chief minister of the NWFP on 23 August 1947.

In July 1948, the governor of the NWFP, Ambrose Flux Dundas promulgated an ordinance, authorizing the provincial government to detain anyone and confiscate their property without giving a reason.

However, when they reached Babrra ground, Abdul Qayyum Khan ordered the police to open fire on protesters.

[2][11] In July 1950, Huseyn Shaheed Suhrawardy, president of the All Pakistan Awami Muslim League (which later evolved into the Awami League and later Prime Minister of Pakistan, said at a large gathering in Dhaka, East Bengal (present-day Bangladesh): “The barbarous massacre of the Red Shirts (Khudai Khidmatgars) committed at Charsadda in 1948 surpassed the Jallianwala Bagh massacre committed by the British in 1919.”[11]