Tikka Khan

Tikka Khan (10 February 1915 – 28 March 2002) was a Pakistani military officer who served as the first chief of the army staff from 1972 to 1976.

Tikka Khan was born on 10 February 1915 into a Punjabi Muslim family of the Janjua Rajput clan in the Jochha Mamdot village of Kahuta Tehsil, Rawalpindi District, Punjab, British India (now North Punjab, Pakistan).

Gaining a commission in 1940 as an artillery officer in the British Indian Army to participate in World War II, he rose to command the 8th and 15th infantry divisions in the war with India in 1965.

After his education in Rawalpindi, he joined the Army Cadet College in Nowgong, Madhya Pradesh in 1933 and joined the British Indian Army as a sepoy in 1935; he gained his commission in the army from the Indian Military Academy on 22 December 1940.

During these early years he was known to be a particularly good boxer.

He participated in World War II and fought with the 2nd Field Regiment, Regiment of Artillery in Libya against the Afrika Korps led by German Field Marshal Erwin Rommel in 1940.

He was captured by German troops and held as a POW in Libya for more than a year.

After successfully escaping, he saw military action in the Burma campaign against Japan in 1945 where he was wounded and hospitalised for some time.

In 1946, he was posted in different parts of India such as Deolali, Mathura, and Kalyan.

During the same time, he served as an instructor at the Indian Military Academy at Dehradun.

After the efforts of Pakistani nationalists culminated in the partition of British India and the creation of Pakistan, Tikka Khan joined the Pakistan Army as a major in the Pakistan Army's Regiment of Artillery in 1947.

His military career progressed well and he got accelerated promotions in the army.

In 1949, he was promoted to lieutenant colonel.

He worked hard to raise the Medium Regiment in the new army.

In 1950–54, he was promoted to colonel and became the deputy director at the directorate of artillery in the GHQ.

At that time, the 8th Infantry Division consisted of the 51st Paratrooper Brigade and the 52nd Infantry Brigade.

In 1955, he was promoted to brigadier.

In 1962, he was promoted to major general and posted at the GHQ in Rawalpindi.

In 1965, Major-General Tikka Khan was the GOC of the 8th Infantry Division that was positioned in Punjab, Pakistan.

In April 1965, the 8th Infantry Division intruded into the Rann of Kutch.

Hostilities broke out between India and Pakistan and Tikka Khan's 8th Division fought the Indian Army in the Battle of Rann of Kutch.

During the war, Tikka Khan earned a reputation as a victor of Rann of Kutch and was credited widely by the Pakistani press for the victories he gained over the Indian Army.

He made a bold stand against the Indian Army's encirclement in the Sialkot sector in 1965.

He later led the 15th Infantry Division in the Indo-Pakistani war of 1965.

In 1969, he was appointed as the commander of IV Corps while acting as martial law administrator in West Pakistan under President Yahya Khan.

After President Ayub Khan handed over the presidency to his army chief General Yahya Khan in 1969, Tikka Khan was promoted to lieutenant general to command the IV Corps, stationed in Lahore.

He was the martial law administrator of Punjab under President Yahya Khan who appointed him after replacing with Attiqur Rahman.

His personality was well known in Pakistan as being tough and ruthless.

The situation was very complex in both West and East Pakistan after the general elections held in 1970 where the Bengali nationalist Awami League won 160 of the 162 seats in East Pakistan, whereas the leftist-socialist Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) won 81 seats out of 138 in West Pakistan.

Along with Yahya Khan, he is considered a chief architect of the 1971 Bangladesh genocide which according to independent researchers led to the deaths of 300,000 to 500,000 people.

In 1971, he took over the command of army's Eastern Command in East Pakistan and appointed as Governor of East Pakistan where he oversaw the planning and the military deployments to execute the military operations to quell the liberation war efforts by the Awami League.

His tough rhetoric to deal with political enemies earned him notoriety and a nickname of Touka (meaning Cleaver) and he was soon relieved of his command by President Yahya Khan.

After commanding the II Corps in the war with India in 1971, Tikka Khan was promoted to four-star rank and appointed as the first chief of army staff of the Pakistan Army in 1972.

As an army chief, Tikka Khan provided support to the Pakistan nuclear programme alongside bureaucrat Ghulam Ishaq Khan.

In March 1971, Tikka Khan was sent to Dacca and left the post to Lieutenant General Bahadur Sher in March 1971.

Upon retirement from the military in 1976, he was subsequently appointed as National Security Advisor by Prime Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, only to be removed in 1977 as a result of enforced martial law.

In the 1980s, he remained active as a political worker of the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) and emerged as its leader when appointed as Governor of Punjab after the general elections held in 1988.

His tenure ended when President Ghulam Ishaq Khan dismissed Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto's government in 1990 and he was succeeded by Mian Muhammad Azhar.

He retired from politics in 1990.

He died on 28 March 2002 and was buried with full military honours in Westridge cemetery in Rawalpindi, Punjab, Pakistan.