Tikka Khan

Tikka Khan

General Tikka Khan in mess dress, PA
Birth name Tikka Khan
Nickname(s) Butcher of Bengal
Born (1915-07-07)7 July 1915
Died 28 March 2002(2002-03-28) (aged 86)
Allegiance British India
 Pakistan
Service/branch  British Indian Army(1940-1947)  Pakistan Army(1947-1976)
Years of service 1940-1976
Rank General
Service number (PA – 124)
Unit 2 Field Regiment, Corps of Artillery
Commands held 8th Infantry Division, Rann of Kutch
15th Infantry Division, Sialkot
IV Corps
Eastern Military High Command
II Strike Corps
Chief of Army Staff
Battles/wars Battle of Rann of Kutch
Battle of Chawinda
Indo-Pakistani War of 1965
Indo-Pakistani War of 1971
Bangladesh Liberation War
Operation Searchlight
Awards Hilal-i-Jurat (HJ)
Hilal-i-Quaid-i-Azam (HQA)
Sitara-e-Pakistan (SPk)
Other work Politician

Tikka Khan, HJ, HQA, SPk, (Punjabi, Urdu: ٹکا خان‎; 7 July 1915 – 28 March 2002) was a four-star general in the Pakistan Army who served as the first Chief of Army Staff of the Pakistan Army from 3 March 1972 to 1 March 1976. After retiring from the Army he was appointed to the cabinet position of Defense and Security Advisor in Prime Minister Z.A. Bhutto's administration. He, along with Secretary General of Defense Mr. Ghulam Ishaq Khan oversaw the genesis of Pakistan's nuclear weapons project in Kahuta according to Dr. A.Q. Khan.[1] Coincidentally, the decision to construct A.Q. Khan's lab in Kahuta was made in the days of Gen Tikka who was from Kahuta. (see early life).

Prior to Tikka's appointment, the Chief of Army Staff (head of the army) was designated as Commander-in-Chief of the Pakistan Army. Before the four-star assignment (in 1971), Tikka Khan was a Martial Law Administrator of erstwhile East-Pakistan (later, Bangladesh). He succeeded Air Commodore Mitty Masud, and assumed the command of Eastern Military High Command on 26 March 1971. As a Commander of Eastern Command, (then) Lieutenant-General Tikka Khan was the architect and top planner of Operation Searchlight.[2] He became Chief of the Army, Member of Bhutto's cabinet, Governor of a Province and leader of the Pakistan People's Party. He was buried with full military honors upon his death in Pakistan.

Early life and education

Tikka Khan was born in a Narma Rajput Punjabi family in the village of Jochha Mamdot in Tehsil Kallar Syedan district Rawalpindi, in 1915 (in what was then British India). He was a graduate of the Indian Military Academy at Dehradun, India and was commissioned on 22 December 1940.

World War II and British Army career

He fought in World War II as part of the Indian Army. 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.

Career with Pakistan Army

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

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

Between the wars

Tikka Khan was a Major-General at the time of 1965 Pak-India war and was posted at Sialkot.

Tikka Khan was promoted to the rank of Lieutenant-General in August 1969. He was then posted as commander IV Corps at Lahore, where he stayed till March 1971. By virtue of Yahya Khan's martial law, Tikka Khan was also the Martial Law Administrator, Zone A (West Pakistan). He had replaced Lt Gen Attiqur Rahman as the MLA and left the post to Lt Gen Bahadur Sher in March 1971. Lahore's Fortress Stadium was constructed under General Tikka Khan's tenure as corps commander.

Tikka Khan left for Dacca in March 1971, where he was to take charge as the commander of the Eastern Command, Martial Law Administrator, Zone B (East Pakistan), and Governor of East Pakistan.

1971 Crisis and Bangladesh War

The 1970 elections in East Pakistan and West Pakistan resulted in a situation where Sheikh Mujibur Rahman's Awami League won 167 of the 169 seats in East Pakistan, whereas Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto's Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) won 81 seats out of 138 in West Pakistan. Although, as the leader of the majority party, Mujib was supposed to be the next Prime Minister of Pakistan, Bhutto was not ready to accept and refused to sit in the National Assembly as opposition party. General Yahya Khan, President of Pakistan, influenced by Bhutto to keep the Bengalis from rising to power, postponed the National Assembly session. Mujib, in a public rally in Dhaka on 7 March, called upon the Bengalis to launch movement against the Pakistan regime. In this circumstance, Tikka was sent out to put down the unrest swelling in East Pakistan. Tikka took over Eastern Command (equivalent to a reinforced Corps) on 6 April 1971 after the previous commander Lt Gen Sahabzada Yaqub Khan resigned.

He was the leading commander of the II Corps responsible for the defence on the Western front of the War in 1971. After a brief stay in East Pakistan, he was then posted as the first commander II Corps at Multan and commanded through the actual Indo-Pakistan conflict in December 1971.

Post retirement

Tikka Khan’s tenure ended in March 1976, and he was later appointed to the cabinet position of Defense and Security Advisor 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. Despite Tikka's political inclinations, many of Tikka's army protégés such as Sawar Khan, Iqbal Khan and Rahimuddin Khan were promoted to Full General and remained on deferential terms with him. 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 Bhutto government in August 1990, after which he retired from active politics.

Later life and death

Tikka Khan's grave at Army graveyard, Rawalpindi

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."

Battle of Chawinda 1965: The Largest Tank Battle after WWII. Gen Tikka Khan was commander of that battle.

See also

References

  1. ↑ http://www.thenews.com.pk/Todays-News-9-57145-Defenders-of-Pakistan
  2. ↑ Hamid Mir (2010-03-26). "Apology Day for Pakistanis". Archive.thedailystar.net. Retrieved 2013-05-25.

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.

External links

Political offices
Preceded by
Attiqur Rahman		 Martial Law Administrator of Zone A, (West Pakistan)
1969–1971 		Succeeded by
Bahadur Sher
Governor of West Pakistan
1969 		Succeeded by
Nur Khan
Preceded by
Sahabzada Yaqub Khan		 Martial Law Administrator of Zone B, (East Pakistan)
1971 		Succeeded by
Amir Abdullah Khan Niazi
Governor of East Pakistan
1971 		Succeeded by
Abdul Motaleb Malik
Preceded by
Makhdoom Sajjad Hussain Qureshi		 Governor of Punjab
1988–1990 		Succeeded by
Mian Muhammad Azhar
Military offices
Preceded by
Air Cdre. Mitty Masud		 Unified Commander of Eastern Military High Command
26 March 1971 – 31 August 1971 		Succeeded by
RAdm Mohammad Shariff
Preceded by
LGen Gul Hassan Khan
as Army Commander-in-Chief, Pakistan Army		 Chief of Army Staff
1972–1976 		Succeeded by
Gen. Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq
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