Lieutenant General Raja Muhammad Akbar Khan (راجہ محمد اکبر خاں, 1922–1978) was a Chib Rajput from Kalri in Bhimber District, Azad Jammu and Kashmir, who rose from a wartime recruit to Deputy Chief of Staff of the Pakistan Army. Raja Muhammad Akbar Khan headed the ISI, commanded in Azad Kashmir during the 1971 war and died on 22 June 1978 while serving as Pakistan’s Ambassador to Britain.
At a glance
- Born
- 1922, Kalri, Tehsil Bhimber (now Bhimber District), Jammu and Kashmir
- Clan
- Chib Rajput, Jaskal got (line of Raja Jaisak Khan)
- Father
- Subedar Raja Jalal Khan, British Indian Army
- Enlisted
- 1942, as a recruit; commissioned soon after
- Highest rank
- Lieutenant General, Pakistan Army
- Key posts
- Director General ISI; GOC Azad Kashmir (1971 war); Deputy Chief of Staff
- Diplomat
- Ambassador of Pakistan to the United Kingdom
- Died
- 22 June 1978, in Britain, while ambassador; buried at Kalri
A soldier’s son from Kalri
Raja Muhammad Akbar Khan was born in 1922 in Kalri, a well-known village of what is now Bhimber District. His father, Subedar Raja Jalal Khan, was a respected figure in the village who retired on pension as a Subedar of the British Indian Army. The general had three brothers: Jamadar Muhammad Ashraf Khan, Raja Muhammad Ashiq Khan and Raja Sanobar Khan.
Kalri’s Chibs belong to the Jaskal got, the descendants of Raja Jaisak Khan, founder of Mandi Panjeri and a grandson of Raja Shadab Khan — Baba Shadi Shaheed, the common ancestor of the Chib Rajputs of Bhimber. Military service ran deep in the family and the village (see Kalri and Mandi Da’ora). The general’s cousin, Major Raja Muhammad Afzal Khan, son of Numberdar Raja Lal Khan, was killed in the Kashmir fighting of 1948 and honoured with the title Fakhr-e-Kashmir, “Pride of Kashmir”; the town of Afzalpur, formerly Gobindpur, bears his name.
The career of Raja Muhammad Akbar Khan: from recruit to general
According to the account the book records, Akbar Khan joined the British Indian Army as a recruit in 1942, after his early schooling. The Second World War had swollen the Indian Army to some two and a half million men, and his abilities soon won him a commission. After 1947 he served in the Pakistan Army, where, the book says, he passed military courses at home and abroad with distinction and made his name as a commander and strategist, rising step by step to the rank of lieutenant general.
Director General of ISI
Among his appointments the book lists that of Director General of Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), Pakistan’s principal military intelligence agency, and credits him with introducing many reforms there. It does not give the dates of his tenure.
The 1971 war
In the India–Pakistan war of December 1971 he was General Officer Commanding (GOC) in Azad Kashmir, and the book says he played an unforgettable part in the defence of the area. The war also cost him a son: Captain Raja Muhammad Zafar Khan of the 13th Lancers was killed in the Zafarwal sector of Sialkot.
Deputy Chief of Staff
He went on to become Deputy Chief of Staff of the Pakistan Army. The book calls him the first descendant of Baba Shadi Shaheed to reach the rank of lieutenant general, and the first person from Azad Jammu and Kashmir to hold that rank — a figure, in its view, of national rather than merely local renown. For other officers of the clan, see Chib Soldiers.
Timeline
- 1922 Born at Kalri, Tehsil Bhimber, son of Subedar Raja Jalal Khan.
- 1942 Enlists in the British Indian Army as a recruit; commissioned soon afterwards.
- After 1947 Serves in the Pakistan Army; among his posts, Director General of ISI.
- December 1971 GOC in Azad Kashmir during the India–Pakistan war; his son Capt. Muhammad Zafar Khan is killed in the Zafarwal sector.
- March 1976 Passed over for Chief of Army Staff on General Tikka Khan’s retirement; resigns from the army.
- 1976–77 Appointed Pakistan’s Ambassador to Britain at Prime Minister Bhutto’s urging.
- 22 June 1978 Dies in office; buried at Kalri.
Passed over for army chief
When General Tikka Khan retired as Chief of Army Staff in March 1976, Prime Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto chose Lieutenant General Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq, who was junior to several serving lieutenant generals. The book says that Akbar Khan, though in every respect entitled to the post, was not appointed for what it calls political reasons. Rather than serve on, he resigned and retired from the army.
Ambassador in London
At Bhutto’s urging he agreed to serve as Pakistan’s Ambassador to Britain. Pakistan had left the Commonwealth in 1972, so its envoy in London was an ambassador rather than a high commissioner. He was still at his post — by then under the military government of General Zia-ul-Haq, which had removed Bhutto in July 1977 — when he died on 22 June 1978. His body was flown home from Britain to Kalri, where the funeral prayers were said and he was buried.
The book mourns his sudden death as an irreparable loss to Chibhal, to Azad Kashmir and to Pakistan, and closes its tribute with a line of Urdu verse:
O departed one, the world will weep for you for years.
— Urdu verse quoted in the book, p. 314
A portrait in the book (p. 315) shows him in khaki uniform, with a Sam Browne belt and rows of medal ribbons.
Family
- Subedar Raja Jalal Khan — British Indian Army
- Lt. Gen. Raja Muhammad Akbar Khan (1922–1978)
- Maj. Raja Muhammad Tariq Khan — Army Aviation pilot; later with Dubai Army Aviation and personal pilot to the Sheikh of Dubai
- Raja Badr Akbar Khan
- Capt. Raja Muhammad Zafar Khan Shaheed — 13th Lancers; killed in the 1971 war, Zafarwal sector
- Jamadar Raja Muhammad Ashraf Khan — British Indian Army
- DSP Raja Shabbir Ahmad Khan — Azad Jammu and Kashmir Police
- Raja Muhammad Ashiq Khan
- Raja Sanobar Khan
- Lt. Gen. Raja Muhammad Akbar Khan (1922–1978)
Not to be confused with
Several men share the name. Lt. Gen. Raja Muhammad Akbar Khan of Kalri is not the same person as Khan Bahadur Raja Muhammad Akbar Khan of Jhelum (d. 1956), head of the Bhimber royal family; nor Major General Akbar Khan, who fought in Kashmir in 1947–48 as “General Tariq” and was tried in the Rawalpindi Conspiracy case of 1951; nor Jamadar Muhammad Akbar Khan of Panjeri, listed among Chib officers in 1926.
Frequently asked questions
Who was Lt. Gen. Raja Muhammad Akbar Khan?
He was a Chib Rajput officer from Kalri in Bhimber District, Azad Kashmir (1922–1978), who joined the British Indian Army as a recruit in 1942, rose to lieutenant general and Deputy Chief of Staff of the Pakistan Army, headed the ISI, commanded in Azad Kashmir in the 1971 war and died in 1978 as Pakistan’s Ambassador to Britain.
Was Raja Muhammad Akbar Khan head of the ISI?
Yes. The 1997 Chib history lists him as a former Director General of Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) and says he introduced many reforms there, though it does not give the dates of his tenure.
Why was he not made army chief?
When General Tikka Khan retired in March 1976, Prime Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto appointed the more junior Lt. Gen. Zia-ul-Haq. The Chib history says Akbar Khan was entitled to the post but was passed over for political reasons, after which he resigned from the army.
When and where did he die?
He died on 22 June 1978, while serving as Pakistan’s Ambassador in Britain. His body was flown home and buried in his ancestral village of Kalri, in Bhimber District, Azad Kashmir.
Is he the same person as Major General Akbar Khan of the Rawalpindi Conspiracy?
No. Major General Akbar Khan, who fought in Kashmir in 1947–48 as General Tariq and was tried in the Rawalpindi Conspiracy case of 1951, was a different officer. Nor is he Khan Bahadur Raja Muhammad Akbar Khan of Jhelum, head of the Bhimber royal family, who died in 1956.
Sources
- Raja Muhammad Iftikhar Ali Khan, Raja Shadab Khan alias Hazrat Baba Shadi Shaheed (Urdu, Barhang/Karachi, 1997), pp. 136, 290, 310–315 (portrait, p. 315).
This article is part of our series based on the 1997 Chib history; see the book, chapter by chapter. Spellings of names follow the book. Context on the 1976 army appointment and on Pakistan’s relations with the Commonwealth is general history.
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