Tikka Khan

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General Tikka Khan
Tenure Order: 7th Chief of the Army Staff
Took Office: March 1972 – March 1976
Predecessor: Gen. Gul Hasan
Successor: Gen. Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq

Tikka Khan (Urdu: ٹکا خان)(Pashto: ٹکا خان) (b. 1915 d. March 28, 2002) was Pakistan's Chief of Army Staff from March 1972–March 1976).

Khan was born in the village of Jochha Mamdot in Kahuta Tehsil near Rawalpindi, in 1915 (in what was then British India). He was a graduate of the Indian Military Academy at Dehradun, and was commissioned in 1939.

He fought in World War II as part of the Indian Army, and was injured on multiple occasions during the fighting. He was in action in numerous battles on both the Burmese and Italian fronts. He was also a prisoner of war for more than two years during the war, before he and his fellow troops escaped.

After his return from World War II, Khan was an instructor at the Indian Military Academy at Dehradun for some time. During the independence, Major Tikka Khan remained in what is now Pakistan, and became an officer in the Pakistan Army.

After Independence, he served in only one Artillery Regiment of Royal Pakistan Artillery, where he raised and commanded the first post partition Medium Regiment of Royal Pakistan Artillery i.e. 12 Medium Regiment Artillery.

He was promoted to the rank of Major General in 1962.

Contents

[edit] 1965 war

One of Khan's greatest successes on the battlefield came in the spring of 1965, during the series of clashes between India and Pakistan in the Rann of Kutch. By most accounts, the Pakistani forces performed very well on the battlefield; this led to a very high level of confidence among Pakistani Army commanders.

General Tikka Khan was at the Sialkot front commanding the 15th Infantry Division during the 1965 India-Pakistan war. He took over the division in the middle of the war on 8 September 1965 from Brig Sardar Ismail Khan, an Army Services Corps soldier who failed as a commander as he was not from a fighting arm. Tikka then successfully defended the city from an Indian attack, during the epic Battle of Chawinda, halting and then pushing back the Indians. Due to these performances, General Tikka became a hero to the Pakistani people, having the image of being an extremely tough commander and a loyal soldier who strictly followed the army chain of command.

[edit] Between the wars

Tikka Khan was promoted to the rank of Lieutenant-General in 1969. He was also the commander IV Corps at Lahore during the same time, a time when he earned a reputation of being a tough administrator and strict disciplinarian. Lahore's Fortess Stadium was constructed under General Tikka Khan's tenure as corps commander.

[edit] 1971 Crisis

The 1970 elections in East Pakistan and West Pakistan resulted in a situation where Sheikh Mujibur Rahman's Awami League won most of the seats (160 out of 300) whereas Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto's Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) won 81 seats. In the crisis that followed he was sent out by General Yahya Khan of Pakistan to put down unrest swelling in East Pakistan. Tikka took over Eastern Command (equivalent to a Corps) on 7 March 1971 after the previous commander Lt Gen Sahabzada Yaqub Khan resigned. Because of his role in the ensuing Operation Searchlight and Bangladesh Liberation War that began on 25 March 1971, Tikka is referred to as the "Butcher of Bengal" by Bangladeshis. He was one of the leading men responsible for the 1971 Genocide in East Pakistan(now Bangladesh). After a brief but notable stay at East Pakistan, he was then posted as the first commander II Corps at Multan and commanded through the actual Indo-Pakistan conflict in December.

Tikka was later superseded by Lt Gen Gul Hassan Khan, when he was selected as the Commander-in-Chief in December 1971.

[edit] Post retirement

Tikka Khan’s tenure ended in March 1976, and he was later appointed Defence Minister by Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto. Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq's July 1977 coup led to the arrest of both Bhutto and General Tikka Khan. Bhutto was executed in 1979, after which General Tikka Khan emerged as one of the leaders of the [[Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP), becoming its Secretary General, during a time when many party stalwarts abandoned it. General Tikka was imprisoned numerous times for his political activities during the late 1970s and 1980s, until Zia-ul-Haq died in August 1988 in an airplane explosion over Bahawalpur. General Tikka Khan was appointed the Governor of Pakistan’s largest province, the Punjab, in December 1988. His tenure as the Governor was cut short by the dismissal of the Benazir government in August 1990, after which he retired from active politics. During his tenure as Chief he directly influenced an entire generation of military personnel, imbuing in them qualities of professionalism and military duty.

[edit] Later life and death

General Tikka Khan died on March 28, 2002 after several years of illness. He received a state burial with full military honors and his funeral was attended by thousands of people, including the entire top brass of the Pakistan Army. In a message to the General's son, Col. Khalid M. Khan, Benazir Bhutto, who had spent many years campaigning with the General, remembered him as a person who, "rose to the highest offices of this country due to his hard work and respect for the rule of law."

[edit] See also

[edit] Further reading

Zaheer, Hasan: The separation of East Pakistan : The rise and realization of Bengali Muslim nationalism, Oxford University Press, 1994.

Sisson, Richard & Rose, Leo: War and secession : Pakistan, India, and the creation of Bangladesh, University of California Press (Berkeley), 1990.

Matinuddin, General Kamal: Tragedy of Errors : East Pakistan Crisis, 1968-1971, Wajidalis, Lahore, Pakistan, 1994.

Salik, Siddiq: Witness to surrender, Oxford University Press, Karachi, Pakistan, 1977.

[edit] References

[edit] External links

Political offices
Preceded by
Lt General Attiqur Rahman		 Martial Law Administrator of Zone A, (West Pakistan)
29 August 1969 – 6 March 1971		 Succeeded by
Air Marshal (retd) Nur Khan
Preceded by
Lt General Sahabzada Yaqub Khan		 Martial Law Administrator of Zone B, (East Pakistan)
7 March 1971 – 31 August 1971		 Succeeded by
Abdul Motaleb Malik
Preceded by
Makhdoom Sajjad Hussain Qureshi		 Governor of Punjab
December 1988 – August 1990		 Succeeded by
Mian Mohammad Azhar
Military offices
Preceded by
General Gul Hasan		 Chief of Army Staff
3 March 1972 – 1 March 1976		 Succeeded by
General Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq
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Military of Pakistan
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