Ruhollah Khomeini, the first Supreme Leader of Iran, has a connection to India as his grandfather, Seyyed Ahmad Musavi Hindi, was born in Kintur, which is in UP's Barabanki. "Seyyed Ahmad left India in about 1830 to make a pilgrimage to the shrine city of Najaf in present-day Iraq," wrote BBC journalist Baqer Moin in 'Khomeini: Life of the Ayatollah'.