Major General Muhammed Iftikhar Khan (10 January 1907 – 13 December 1949) was an officer of the

British Indian Army The British Indian Army, commonly referred to as the Indian Army, was the main military of the British Raj before its dissolution in 1947. It was responsible for the defence of the British Indian Empire, including the princely states, which co ...

and later

Pakistan Army The Pakistan Army (, ) is the Army, land service branch of the Pakistan Armed Forces. The roots of its modern existence trace back to the British Indian Army that ceased to exist following the partition of India, Partition of British India, wh ...

. He was the strongest contender to succeed General

Douglas Gracey General Sir Douglas David Gracey & Bar (3 September 1894 – 5 June 1964) was a British Indian Army officer who fought in both the First and Second World Wars. He also fought in French Indochina and was the second Commander-in-Chief of the Paki ...

as the Commander-in-Chief, but unfortunately was killed in a plane crash before he took office.

Early life

Iftikhar Khan belonged to the

Minhas The Minhas or Manhas is a Rajput Clan. They are found in Punjab, Himachal Pradesh and Jammu and Kashmir. These are spread in most of the part of Gagwan and Jhatgali of district Ramban. It is found in Hindu, Muslim and Sikh communities. Nota ...

Rajput Rajput (from Sanskrit ''raja-putra'' 'son of a king') is a large multi-component cluster of castes, kin bodies, and local groups, sharing social status and ideology of genealogical descent originating from the Indian subcontinent. The term Ra ...

clan of

Chakwal Chakwal ( Punjabi and ur, ) is a city in Rawalpindi Division, Punjab province, Pakistan. It is the 66th largest city of Pakistan by population. Chakwal is located 90 kilometres south-west of the federal capital, Islamabad and 270 kilomet ...

. His father was

Ressaidar Ressaidar was a Viceroy's commissioned officer's (VCO) rank in the British Indian Army. Ressaidar denoted a junior commander of a ''risala'' or ''risalah'' (a body of horse, regardless if troop or regiment) in Persian. This native Officer's rank ...

Raja Fazal Dad Khan, who was a

Zamindar A zamindar ( Hindustani: Devanagari: , ; Persian: , ) in the Indian subcontinent was an autonomous or semiautonomous ruler of a province. The term itself came into use during the reign of Mughals and later the British had begun using it as a ...

, or landowner, and had served as a Viceroy's Commissioned Officer with a British Indian Army cavalry unit. Iftikhar had nine brothers and four sisters. Six, including Iftikhar, were in the army, including Major General

Muhammed Akbar Khan Muhammed Akbar Khan ( ur, محمد اکبر خان), MBE PA-1 (19 April 1897 - 1993) was a Pakistani general and at the time of the independence of Pakistan, he was the most senior Muslim General. He also served as the first Senior Military ...

, Major General

Muhammad Anwar Khan Major General Raja Muhammad Anwar Khan was the first Pakistan Army Engineer Officer and the first Muslim Engineer In Chief of the Pakistan Army. He was the first Muslim to be a Sapper officer in the British Indian Army and its pre-partition I ...

, Brigadier Muhammad Afzal, Brigadier

Muhammed Zafar Khan Brigadier Muhammed Zafar Khan was the first South Asian Commander in the British Indian Army Cavalry. Khan belongs to the Minhas Rajput clan of Chakwal. His father Raja Fazal Dad Khan was a minor Zamindar (landowner) and was commissioned with ...

, and Brigadier Muhammad Yusuf Khan. The three other brothers Baqir Khan, Tahir Khan, and

Masud Khan Mohammed Masud Raza Khan (21 July 1924 - 7 June 1989) was a Pakistani-British psychoanalyst. His training analyst was Donald Winnicott. Masud Raza Khan was a protege of Sigmund Freud's daughter Anna Freud, and a long-time collaborator with Donal ...

chose civilian careers.

Career

After attending the

Royal Military College, Sandhurst The Royal Military College (RMC), founded in 1801 and established in 1802 at Great Marlow and High Wycombe in Buckinghamshire, England, but moved in October 1812 to Sandhurst, Berkshire, was a British Army military academy for training infantry a ...

, on 29 August 1929 Iftikhar Khan was commissioned as a Second Lieutenant on the Unattached List for the Indian Army. He then spent a year on attachment to the 2nd battalion of the

Manchester Regiment The Manchester Regiment was a line infantry regiment of the British Army in existence from 1881 until 1958. The regiment was created during the 1881 Childers Reforms by the amalgamation of the 63rd (West Suffolk) Regiment of Foot and the 96th ...

British Indian Army

Khan transferred to the Indian Army on 16 October 1930 and was posted to the

7th Light Cavalry The 7th Light Cavalry previously the 28th Light Cavalry, was a regular army cavalry regiment in the British Indian Army. It was raised in 1784 under the East India Company. The regiment later saw service on the North West Frontier and in World Wa ...

. He was promoted to Lieutenant on 29 November 1931. He then transferred to the 3rd Cavalry on 1 October 1932, a regiment which was in the process of being Indianised. He was promoted to Captain on 29 August 1938 and served as regimental Quartermaster from 1 August 1937 to 18 April 1938, then as regimental Adjutant from 19 April 1938 to 5 August 1940. He was appointed a Staff Captain on 7 August 1940. From 17 December 1941, Khan was attached to the No. 2 Indian Armoured Corps Training Center. By January 1943, he was a General Staff Officer Grade 2 on the staff of Headquarters Ceylon Army Command. By July 1943 he was a local Lieutenant Colonel and a General Staff Officer Grade 2 at the

Command and Staff College, Quetta ( ''romanized'': Pir Sho Biyamooz Saadi)English: Grow old, learning Saadi ur, سیکھتے ہوئے عمر رسیدہ ہو جاؤ، سعدی , established = (as the ''Army Staff College'' in Deolali, British India) , closed ...

. He was still in this role in April 1944. 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. He was promoted to Major on 29 August 1946. He commanded the

in Japan as part of the

occupation forces Japan was occupied and administered by the victorious Allies of World War II from the 1945 surrender of the Empire of Japan at the end of the war until the Treaty of San Francisco took effect in 1952. The occupation, led by the United States wi ...

from September to December 1946.

Pakistani Army

On the

Partition of India The Partition of British India in 1947 was the Partition (politics), change of political borders and the division of other assets that accompanied the dissolution of the British Raj in South Asia and the creation of two independent dominions: ...

and independence of Pakistan in August 1947, Khan opted to join the new

. He was quickly promoted to Major General and on 1 January 1948 assumed the command of the 10th Division. Khan had been nominated to become the first local Commander in Chief (C-in-C) of the Pakistan Army after General

Douglas David Gracey General Sir Douglas David Gracey & Bar (3 September 1894 – 5 June 1964) was a British Indian Army officer who fought in both the First and Second World Wars. He also fought in French Indochina and was the second Commander-in-Chief of the Pak ...

's retirement.Major-General Shaukat Riza, ''The Pakistan Army 1947-49'', p. 183 He was senior to later Commander-in-Chief and dictator

Ayub Khan Ayub Khan is a compound masculine name; Ayub is the Arabic version of the name of the Biblical figure Job, while Khan or Khaan is taken from the title used first by the Mongol rulers and then, in particular, their Islamic and Persian-influenced s ...

. In

'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."

Death

Before Khan could take up his new post, on 13 December 1949, at 10pm PST, he was killed, along with Brigadier Sher Khan and 24 others, in a Pakistan Airways

Dakota Dakota may refer to: * Dakota people, a sub-tribe of the Sioux ** Dakota language, their language Dakota may also refer to: Places United States * Dakota, Georgia, an unincorporated community * Dakota, Illinois, a town * Dakota, Minnesota, a ...

plane crash An aviation accident is defined by the Convention on International Civil Aviation Annex 13 as an occurrence associated with the operation of an aircraft, which takes place from the time any person boards the aircraft with the ''intention of fl ...

. The plane was flying from Lahore to Karachi when it crashed at Karo Jabal, near Malmari Jalalji Village, Thatta, 102 kilometers from Karachi and several miles away from the nearest rescue base in

Jungshahi Jungshahi (also spelled as ''Jang Shahi'') is a town of Thatta District in the Sindh province of Pakistan. It lies to the east of Karachi at 24°51'26N 67°46'21E and is a Union Council of Thatta tehsil. In 1949 Major General Muhammed Iftikhar Kh ...

. Khan was on the way to Karachi to proceed to England for a course at the Imperial Defence College (IDC).Sydney Morning Herald Wednesday 14 December 1949

References

Bibliography

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External links

The Quaid: Pakistan’s Tom Paine or Thomas Jefferson? By Mohammad Ashraf Chaudhry
{{DEFAULTSORT:Khan, Iftikhar 1907 births 1949 deaths Pakistani generals British Indian Army officers Indian Army personnel of World War II People from Chakwal District Graduates of the Royal Military College, Sandhurst Victims of aviation accidents or incidents in 1949 Victims of aviation accidents or incidents in Pakistan