A 1949 Air Crash that may have Changed Pakistan’s History

At 10 pm on the 12th of December 1949, a DC-3C Dakota of Pak Air Services (AP-ADI) flying from Lahore to Karachi crashed near Jungshahi, 65 km north-east of its intended destination. The cause was termed as navigational error and all 26 on board perished. Amongst them were Qazi Musa (the brother of the famous Muslim Leaguer Qazi Isa), Brigadier Sher Khan MC, the Director of Military Operations and Major General Muhammad Iftikhar Khan who was a strong contender for the appointment of the first Pakistani C-in-C. He was junior in service to General Ayub Khan but had been promoted earlier to command 10 Division in Lahore. He was proceeding to the UK to attend a year’s course at the Imperial Defence College to groom him for the appointment as C-in-C.

Iftikhar had very strong military credentials. He belonged to the Minhas Rajput clan of Chakwal and was the son of Khan Bahadur Risaldar Major Raja Fazal Dad Khan. He was one of five brothers in the army. The eldest was PA-1, Major General Akbar Khan, Army Service Corps, who had joined Probyn’s Horse as a sowar and attached the suffix “Rangroot” to his name. Another brother in the cavalry was Brigadier Muhammad Afzal (16th Light Cavalry) and another brother who also became a major general was Anwar Khan, the first Pakistani Engineer-in-Chief. Iftikhar was commissioned from Sandhurst in 1930 and joined 7th Light Cavalry. Of the Indianised cavalry regiments, 7th Cavalry was the most expensive and therefore attracted independently wealthy officers like Mucchu Chowdhry or princely family’s scions like “Bhayya” of Cooch Bihar and Dinkie Rajwade of Gwalior. Iftikhar, too, was well off as his father had three large estates in the Punjab. When 3rd Cavalry was Indianised in 1932, Iftikhar was assigned to this regiment. As the number of Indian officers in the Indianised Regiments increased, they became eligible for more responsible posts, and Iftikhar Khan was promoted captain and appointed as adjutant with only eight years of service.

In his book The Pakistan Army 1947-49, Major General Shaukat Riza credits Iftikhar as “[...] a handsome and forceful character who was never slowed by obstacles”. Lieutenant General Yusuf who was concurrently adjutant of 7th Light Cavalry remembers him as “a fine horseman and a strict adjutant.” Iftikhar was hardworking too, and while he was adjutant, he wrote in a letter to my father, “I am dammed busy these days. I am a member of a G.C.M. [General Court Martial], which starts at 9. am, and goes on till 4.30 pm and on my return I go to office and try to do a spot of work there for about a couple of hours [...] We are joining to work at it [the G.C.M.] tomorrow, a holiday, and on Sunday.”

Known by the nickname of “Ifti”, he belonged to a breed of “native” officers, who were more acceptable to the British than others because they had become thoroughly Anglicized. My father Shahid Hamid (who served with Ifti in 3rd Cavalry recollects that he “ [...] was more English than the English themselves and looked down on everything native.” Officers like him including his colleague in 7th Cavalry, Joyanto Nath (Moochu) Chaudhuri, were sometimes referred to as “Brindian”. According to Lieutenant General Fazal Muqeem, a degree of Anglicization was understandably natural. He reflects that the Indian officer “lived among British officers, looked up to them and modeled himself on their pattern.”

Iftikhar was fortunate to be sent to attend the Staff Course at Quetta before 3rd Cavalry sailed for Singapore and into Japanese captivity. He was subsequently posted as a Grade II General Staff Officer at an Army Headquarters in Ceylon and then posted back to Quetta as an Instructor. He then served time in Burma with 45th Cavalry, a regiment that had been raised during the war. Not much is known about his service with this regiment because its war records were not preserved, but it operated with the 28th Infantry Brigade during the siege of Kohima and later fought extensively in the Third Arakan Offensive along with 19th Lancers. By 1945 he was the 2iC of the regiment and when it was disbanded in March 1946, he returned to 7th Light Cavalry.

The first and only Indian to command an armoured regiment during the Second World War was Moochu Chaudhuri, who rose to be the Chief of Staff of the Indian Army in 1962. He and Iftikhar had served together in 7th Light Cavalry but Moochu was given command of 16th Light Cavalry when it moved to Burma. However soon after the war, Iftikhar Khan was also given command of his regiment.

Moochu was drunk at a late guest-night and said that he was looking forward to the day when British blood would run deep in India. Iftikhar Khan struck him and said “Over my dead body” and Moochu was carted to bed

Moochu was a projectionist and opportunist and Iftikhar did not like him at all. When his regiment moved to Burma from Quetta, he ensured that its progress was reported in the newspapers under the banner of an Indian commanding officer going into battle with his regiment. He also couldn’t hold his drinks.

Iftikhar and Moochu were together at the Staff College as instructors. Major General I.R. Graeme, Royal Artillery, narrates in a letter to Shahid Hamid that Moochu was drunk at a late guest-night and said that he was looking forward to the day when British blood would run deep in India. Iftikhar Khan struck him and said “Over my dead body” and Moochu was carted to bed.

Iftikhar Khan accompanied 7th Light Cavalry to Japan as part of the Allied Occupation Force and was appointed its first Indian commanding officer in September 1946. However, his tenure was for a short three months as he proceeded to attend the Joint Services Staff Course in UK. After Independence he briefly commanded an infantry brigade and was then promoted to command 10 Division in Lahore on the first day of the New Year of 1948. He had 18 years of service and had risen from the command of a regiment to that of a division in three years.

Sher Ali who had been a close friend of “Ifti” since before the War, found that he had changed “very much for the better”. In his book Unlikely Beginnings: a Soldier’s Life, Major General A.O. Mitha, the father of Pakistan’s Special Forces, recollects that, “Iftikhar was a tough commander and had the reputation of eating a brigadier or a colonel for breakfast every day. However, he was big enough to tolerate outspoken, forceful subordinates”.

Apparently he was also a man of few words. Throughout an inspection of an infantry battalion raised by Mitha in 10 Division at Lahore, Iftikhar spoke no word except when he departed. He asked Mitha, “How much service do you have?” Mitha who had only eight years of service, subsequently received a letter of appreciation from the division headquarters.

In 1949 the Defence Secretary Iskander Mirza went on the first of a number of visits to the US to get military equipment. Iftikhar was the senior military representative of the delegation deemed to be an exemplary leader by the U.S. Military Attaché in its dispatches. The military attaché believed that Iftikhar Khan would be the next commander-in-chief. He also believed that Iftikhar would be succeeded by Brigadier Sher Khan, credited with having the “best mind” in the Pakistani Army and a “balanced personality”. Unfortunately, both Iftikhar and Sher Khan died before they could rise to their full potential and even before they could be allotted Pakistan Army service numbers.

While Iftikhar was heading to the United Kingdom, Sher Khan was to fly on an assignment to the United States. Sher Khan called Iftikhar, who was travelling from Lahore to Karachi by train and persuaded him that they travel by air together.

That is fate.

“The moving finger writes and having writ moves on: nor all thy Piety nor Wit shall lure it back to cancel half a Line, Nor all thy Tears wash out a Word of it” (verse by Omar Khayyam).

Their death was a shock to a very young Pakistan Army which in one stroke lost two of its finest senior officers who were potential C-in-Cs.

Would the history of Pakistan have been any different if Iftikhar had survived and been appointed as Chief? Would the army have remained away from politics?

I have analysed the crash and its causes in an article previously published in The Friday Times on Brigadier Sher Khan. The crash scene was several miles from Jangshahi’s rescue base and the bodies had to be transported on stretchers through very difficult terrain with the aid of ropes. The body of Iftikhar and his wife were identified by his brother Major General Akbar and Sher Khan’s body by a silver cigarette case in his breast pocket which bore his initials “S.K.”

The funeral procession was organised at the grounds of the Frere Hall in Karachi. It then proceeded to the Armed Forces Cemetery about a one-and-a-half miles away through the Saddar Bazaar and was witnessed by thousands. The coffins of Iftikhar and Sher Khan were carried to the gun carriages by senior officers including Commodore Chaudhri, Brig Rodham, Brigadier Sher Ali and Group Captain Murad. The procession was headed by the chief mourners, Major General Akbar and Lieutenant Colonel Yusuf Khan, the brother of Sher Khan. Next in line was Admiral Jefford, Major General Raza and Ghulam Muhammad who was representing the Prime Minister. Behind them were a large number of diplomats, government and military officials and important members of the Karachi community. It was led by a contingent of 2nd Baloch Battalion and each gun carriage was pulled by eight Junior Commissioned Officers. Over 30,000 mourners attended the funeral prayers at the Armed Forces Cemetery.

 

Would the history of Pakistan have been any different if Iftikhar had survived and been appointed as Chief? Would the army have remained away from politics?

Who can say?

But let me leave the last word with my father who was on very good terms with Iftikhar. In his achieves are a number of letters written to him by “Ifty” in an extremely friendly tone. While comparing Iftikhar with Ayub Khan in his autobiography Shahid Hamid states “Iftikhar was an ambitious officer.”