Imam Bashir Ahmad Rafiq’s Biography
Chapter 17: Launch of ‘Akhbar e Ahmadiyya’


In 1962, Hadhrat Sahibzada Mirza Bashir Ahmad wrote to me and suggested that for the purpose of education, training and promoting mutual friendship amongst the members of the Jamaat it would be advisable to start a Paper on behalf of the British Mission. He said that it did not really matter if the paper consisted only of a few pages.
In accordance with his wishes, I started publishing a bi-monthly paper, ‘Akhbaar e Ahmadiyya’. A part of it was in English. For the Urdu portion, I made an attempt at calligraphy myself. The paper was printed on a cyclostyling machine and was distributed free of charge. Apart from the Jamaat news, it contained rebuttals of the allegations from our opponents. Articles concerning education and training formed an important part of it.
In the beginning, the cyclostyling machine was operated manually and it was quite a chore. A few years later, an electric machine was purchased. By then the standard of calligraphy and printing had improved considerably. For calligraphy Malik Khaleel Ahmad Lateef Jan and for printing Muhammad Ilyas Nasir Dehlvi rendered invaluable service.

By the Grace of Allah, this paper kept on progressing day by day. Even now, this paper is regularly published every month.