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Iftikhar Khan
Muhammad Iftikhar Khan | |
|---|---|
 Iftikhar Khan's official portrait | |
| Nickname(s) | Ifti[1] |
| Allegiance | Pakistan |
| Service/ | |
| Years of service | 1929–1949 |
| Rank | Major General |
| Commands held |
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| Battles/wars | |
| Relations |
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Major General Muhammed Iftikhar Khan (10 January 1907 – 13 December 1949) was an officer of the British Indian Army and later Pakistan Army. He was the strongest contender[2] to succeed General Douglas Gracey as the Commander-in-Chief, but unfortunately was martyred in a plane crash before he took office.[3]
Early life[edit]
Iftikhar Khan belonged to the Minhas Rajput clan of Chakwal. His father Ressaidar Retd Raja Fazal Dad Khan was a Zamindar (landowner) and had served as a Viceroy's Commissioned Officer with a British Indian Army cavalry unit. Iftikhar had 9 brothers and 4 sisters. 6 (counting Iftikhar) were in the army including Major General Muhammed Akbar Khan, Major General Muhammad Anwar Khan, Brigadier Muhammad Afzal, Brigadier Muhammed Zafar Khan, Brigadier Muhammad Yusuf Khan. The three other brothers Baqir Khan, Tahir Khan, and Masud Khan chose civilian careers.[4]
Career[edit]
After attending the Royal Military College, Sandhurst Iftikhar Khan was commissioned as a Second Lieutenant on the Unattached List for the Indian Army on 29 August 1929.[5] He then spent a year on attachment to the 2nd battalion of the Manchester Regiment.[6]
British Indian Army[edit]
He joined the Indian Army on 16 October 1930 and was posted to the 7th Light Cavalry.[7] He was promoted Lieutenant on 29 November 1931.[8] He then transferred to the 3rd Cavalry on 1 October 1932, a regiment which was then in the process of being Indianised.[9] He was promoted Captain on 29 August 1938. He was appointed regimental Quartermaster from 1 August 1937 to 18 April 1938 then regimental Adjutant from 19 April 1938 to 5 August 1940.[10][11][12]
He was appointed Staff Captain on 7 August 1940.[13][14][15]
From 17 December 1941 he was attached to the No. 2 Indian Armoured Corps Training Center.[16] By January 1943 he was a General Staff Officer Grade 2 on the staff of Headquarters Ceylon Army Command.[17]
By July 1943 he was a local Lieutenant Colonel and a General Staff Officer Grade 2 at the Command and Staff College, Quetta.[18] He was still in this role in April 1944.[19]
In early 1945 he was a temporary Major and second in command of the 45th Cavalry, a war raised armoured unit then serving in Burma, later posted to the 7th Light Cavalry as temporary Major and second in command.[20]
He was promoted to Major on 29 August 1946. He commanded the 7th Light Cavalry in Japan as part of the occupation forces from September to December 1946.[21]
Pakistani Army[edit]
On the independence of Pakistan in 1947, he opted to join the Pakistan Army. He was quickly promoted to Major General and on 1 January 1948, assumed the command of the 10th Division.[22]
He had been nominated to become the first local Commander in Chief (C-in-C) of the Pakistan Army after General Douglas David Gracey's retirement.[23] He was senior to later Commander-in-Chief and dictator Ayub Khan.[24]
Death[edit]
Unfortunately before he could assume the post, on 13 December 1949 at 10pm PST[25] he was martyred along with Brigadier Sher Khan and 24 others in a Pakistan Airways Dakota plane crash.
The plane was flying from Lahore to Karachi when it crashed in Karo Jabal, near Malmari Jalalji Village, Thatta (102 Kilometers from Karachi) and several miles away from the nearest rescue base in Jungshahi.
He was en route to Karachi to proceed to England for a course at the Imperial Defence College (IDC).[26]
Ayub Khans statement on Iftikhars death[edit]
In Ayub Khan's book, "Friends, not masters", he says "the British were backing Major General Iftikhar and that he was short tempered and difficult to get on with.". This is also mentioned in * Abbas, Hassan (2015), Pakistan's Drift into Extremism: Allah, the Army, and America's War on Terror: Allah, the Army, and America's War on Terror, Taylor & Francis, ISBN 978-1-317-46327-6
References[edit]
- ↑ "A 1949 Air Crash that may have Changed Pakistan's History". 27 December 2019.
- ↑ "A 1949 Air Crash that may have Changed Pakistan's History". 27 December 2019.
- ↑ Jalal, Struggle for Pakistan 2014, p. 79.
- ↑ False Self: The Life of Masud Khan by Linda B. Hopkins
- ↑ London Gazette 30 August 1929 page 5646
- ↑ July 1930 Indian Army List
- ↑ January 1931 Indian Army List
- ↑ April 1934 Indian Army List
- ↑ April 1934 Indian Army List
- ↑ October 1937 Indian Army List
- ↑ July 1940 Indian Army List
- ↑ January 1941 Indian Army List
- ↑ War services of British and Indian officer of the Indian Army 1941
- ↑ January 1941 Indian Army List
- ↑ July 1941 Indian Army List
- ↑ April 1942 Indian Army List
- ↑ January 1943 Indian Army List
- ↑ July 1943 Indian Army List
- ↑ April 1944 Indian Army List
- ↑ October 1945 Indian Army List
- ↑ We Lead. 7th Light Cavalry 1784-1990 Edited by Lt-Col C. L. Proudfoot
- ↑ Riza, Shaukat. The Pakistan Army 1947-49
- ↑ see page 183, The history of Pakistan Army 1947-49 by Maj-Gen Shaukat Riza
- ↑ Shaukat Hyat Khan Memoirs Lahore, 1993, np
- ↑ "Air tragedies that struck Pakistan's armed forces".
- ↑ Sydney Morning Herald Wednesday 14 December 1949
Bibliography[edit]
- Abbas, Hassan (2015), Pakistan's Drift into Extremism: Allah, the Army, and America's War on Terror: Allah, the Army, and America's War on Terror, Taylor & Francis, ISBN 978-1-317-46327-6
- Jalal, Ayesha (2014), The Struggle for Pakistan: A Muslim Homeland and Global Politics, Harvard University Press, ISBN 978-0-674-74499-8
- Kapur, Teg Bahadur (2004), Unknown Significant Facts from a Soldier's Diary, Minerva Press, ISBN 978-81-7662-304-9
- Singh, V. K. (2005), Leadership in the Indian Army: Biographies of Twelve Soldiers, SAGE Publications, p. 160, ISBN 978-0-7619-3322-9
- Zaheer, Hasan (1998), The Times and Trial of the Rawalpindi Conspiracy, 1951: The First Coup Attempt in Pakistan, Oxford University Press, ISBN 978-0-19-577892-2
Further reading[edit]
- Barua, Pradeep. The Army Officer Corps and Military Modernisation in Later Colonial India
- Sharma, Gautam. Nationalisation of the Indian Army
External links[edit]
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