Khadim Hussain Raja (b.
Haranpur
Haranpur is a town and union council of Pind Dadan Khan Tehsil in Jhelum District, Punjab province, Pakistan, it is located at 32°36'11N 73°8'53E. During British rule
The British Raj (; from Hindi ''rāj'': kingdom, realm, state, or e ...
,
Jhelum District,
British India
The provinces of India, earlier presidencies of British India and still earlier, presidency towns, were the administrative divisions of British governance on the Indian subcontinent. Collectively, they have been called British India. In one ...
1922/11/23; d. 1999/12/09,
Islamabad
Islamabad (; ur, , ) is the capital city of Pakistan. It is the country's ninth-most populous city, with a population of over 1.2 million people, and is federally administered by the Pakistani government as part of the Islamabad Capital ...
,
Pakistan
Pakistan ( ur, ), officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan ( ur, , label=none), is a country in South Asia. It is the world's fifth-most populous country, with a population of almost 243 million people, and has the world's second-lar ...
) was a
Pakistani army officer who attained the rank of
Major General
Major general (abbreviated MG, maj. gen. and similar) is a military rank used in many countries. It is derived from the older rank of sergeant major general. The disappearance of the "sergeant" in the title explains the apparent confusion of ...
. He was the
General Officer Commanding of 14 Division during the
Bangladesh Liberation War.
Maj Gen Raja was in charge of military operation of March 25, 1971. Other generals were present in Dhaka along with Yahya Khan, and secretly departed on the evening of March 25, 1971, that fateful day after fixing the deadline for the military action. Lt Gen Tikka Khan, Maj Gen Rao Farman Ali and Maj Gen Khadim Hussain Raja were associated with the planning of the military action. Eventually their action bloodied the capital city Dhaka with the blood of thousands of residents including students, military and police personnel, politician and the general mass. Later documents regarding their action on the early hours of 26 March 1971 known as Operation Searchlight was revealed to the world. He wrote a book, ''A Stranger in My Own Country: East Pakistan, 1969-71'' (
Oxford University Press
Oxford University Press (OUP) is the university press of the University of Oxford. It is the largest university press in the world, and its printing history dates back to the 1480s. Having been officially granted the legal right to print books ...
, 2012), in which he revealed secrets about the nine-month liberation war of Bangladesh.
The
Mukti Bahini
The Mukti Bahini ( bn, মুক্তিবাহিনী, translates as 'freedom fighters', or liberation army), also known as the Bangladesh Forces, was the guerrilla resistance movement consisting of the Bangladeshi military, paramilitary ...
's (under
M. A. G. Osmani
Muhammad Ataul Goni Osmani ( bn, মুহাম্মদ আতাউল গণি ওসমানী; 1 September 1918 – 16 February 1984), also known as ''Bangabir'' (the Hero of Bengal), was a Bengali military leader. Osmani's career ...
) initial success in capturing a portable radio-transmitter near
Rangamati
Rangamati (Bengali: রাঙ্গামাটি;) is the administrative headquarter and town of Rangamati Hill District in the Chittagong Hill Tracts of Bangladesh. The town is located at 22°37'60N 92°12'0E and has an altitude of . The dist ...
was short-lived due to Raja's accidental discovery of the transmitter—he had authorised a search for it, and directed it from his personal helicopter through radio-contact when it was fired-upon.
References
External links
An Atlas of the 1971 India - Pakistan War: The Creation of Bangladesh by John H. Gill
1922 births
1999 deaths
People from Jhelum District
Pakistani writers
Pakistani generals
Pakistani military personnel of the Indo-Pakistani War of 1971
{{Pakistan-mil-bio-stub