Mirza Hassan Khan Fateh-e-Gilgit wa Baltistan | |
---|---|
Native name | مرزا حسن خان |
Nickname(s) | Fateh-e-Gilgit wa Baltistan (Liberator of Gilgit-Baltistan) |
Born | [1] Gilgit | 27 January 1919
Died | 19 November 1983 64) (aged Gilgit, Northern Areas (now Gilgit-Baltistan) |
Buried | Chinar Bagh, Gilgit |
Allegiance | ![]() ![]() |
Service | ![]() ![]() |
Years of service | 1938-1953 |
Rank | ![]() |
Unit | 4th J & K Infantry 6th J & K Infantry Gilgit Scouts 7 AK Regiment 4/15 Punjab Regiment 2/15 Punjab Regiment |
Battles / wars | |
Awards | ![]() ![]() ![]() |
Alma mater | Sri Pratap College Indian Military Academy |
Mirza Hassan Khan (Urdu : مرزا حسن خان), of Majini Mohallah Gilgit, was a captain of the 6th Infantry of the Jammu and Kashmir State Forces. Placed at Bunji in the Gilgit wazarat (now Astore district, Gilgit-Baltistan), Khan rebelled against the Maharaja's regime after his accession to India and participated in the overthrow of the governor of Gilgit in November 1947. He later fought in the First Kashmir War as part of Gilgit rebel forces under the command of Colonel Aslam Khan and rose to become a colonel in the Pakistan Army. [2] After leaving the army, he founded the Gilgit League to protest against the Pakistan's ad-hoc administration of Gilgit-Baltistan.
Mirza Hassan Khan was born in Gilgit in 1919. His father, Mirza Taj Muhammad Khan, belonged to a Rono family of Gilgit. His mother was from Nagar. [3]
Khan had early education in Gilgit and then went to Srinagar. However, his father died at this time and he was taken to Poonch by Wazir Mir Husein Shah. He studied in J.V. High School there and stood first among all students in the district. Afterwards, he entered the Sri Pratap College in Srinagar. [3]
While studying in college, he decided to become a soldier and went to Jammu to enrol as a sepoy. But upon the advice of Col. Mirza Faqirullah, he applied for the king's commission in the army. After studying at the Indian Military Academy at Dehradun in 1937–38, he joined the Jammu and Kashmir State Forces. [4]
Khan entered the service of Jammu and Kashmir State Forces in 1938. During World War II, he was sent to Burma as part of the 4th Kashmir Infantry Division. For his gallantry in the Burma action, he was awarded Burmese Star, M. D. and M. C. [4]
After returning from Burma, Khan felt that the Maharaja was cold towards the Muslim officers that returned from the war. He was posted to Bhimber as part of the 6th Kashmir Infantry. Here he became involved with a group of Muslim officers that plotted to overthrow the Maharaja's regime. A revolutionary council was set up in 1946 and Hassan Khan was made its chairman. The group decided to act when the British handed power over to the Dominions of India and Pakistan, by simultaneously attacking and occupying the military cantonments in their respective areas. However, the Maharaja's government transferred all the officers to new locations before that time and the plot was foiled. [4]
It has also been said that Major Aslam Khan, who was supposed to act in Jammu, left the service of State Forces and moved to the (undivided) British Indian Army. Thus a key part of the revolution went missing. Hassan Khan was transferred to the Badami Bagh Cantonment in Srinagar in July 1947. [5]
In July 1947, the British government terminated the 60-year lease of the Gilgit Agency and returned the region to the Maharaja. The Maharaja's administration posted Brigadier Ghansara Singh as the governor to Gilgit. It also sent the 6th Infantry to Bunji (in the Astore District, immediately south of the Indus River across from Gilgit). The battalion was commanded by Colonel Abdul Majeed. Hassan Khan commanded a company within it and was found to be actively canvassing for Pakistan. [6] [7] [a]
At the beginning of October, a serious brawl broke out between the Muslim and non-Muslim troops in the Bunji garrison. The Maharaja's administration ordered that Hassan Khan should be sent to Srinagar under arrest. Governor Ghansara Singh, however, had the order annulled on the grounds that it would aggravate the situation. [10]
Towards the end of October, governor Ghansara Singh became apprehensive of the loyalties of the Gilgit Scouts based in Gilgit, and asked Col. Abdul Majeed to send a contingent of Sikh troops. Hassan Khan persuaded Majeed that he should go in place of Sikhs, with the argument that the arrival of Sikh troops would further inflame the Gilgit Scouts. With Majeed's agreement, he set out to Gilgit. [11] It appears that by the time he reached Gilgit, the governor was already overpowered. Nevertheless Hassan Khan sided with Major William Brown of the Gilgit Scouts and later gave himself the full credit as the leader of the coup. [12]
On 2 November 1947, Mirza Hassan Khan and other officers of the rebel forces, announced a provisional government, with Raja Shah Rais Khan as the President and Mirza Hassan Khan as the Commander-in-Chief. William Brown was told that, being a non-Muslim, he could not hold any post in the government. In his autobiography, Khan ascribed to himself a central role in the coup. Scholar Yaqoob Khan Bangash doubts his account. [13]
Soon after the coup, William Brown telegraphed the Pakistan government in the North-West Frontier Province informing them of the developments and asking them to take over the administration of Gilgit. Pakistan's Political Agent, Khan Mohammad Alam Khan, arrived on 16 November and dismissed the provisional government. Thus the Gilgit Agency was absorbed into Pakistan. Mirza Hassan Khan was appointed the military governor for the Bunji sector and asked to focus on that area only. [14]
On 19 January 1948, the Azad Kashmir provisional government appointed Major Mohammad Aslam Khan replacing Major William Brown as the commander of Gilgit Scouts. [15] [16] Major Aslam organised all the forces in Gilgit into three wings of 400 men each, which were called the Ibex Force, Tiger Force and Eskimo Force. The three forces were ordered to advance along three directions into the state of Jammu Kashmir. Mirza Hassan Khan was put in charge of the Tiger Force, which advanced on the Gilgit-Bunji-Kamri-Gurais-Bandipora axis. The force reached Bandipora on 28 April, but had to withdraw to Tragbal. When Gurais was recaptured in June by the Indian forces, the Tiger Force withdrew to Minimarg. [17] [18]
In 1957, Mirza Hassan Khan founded the Gilgit League, which is said to be the first political organisation formed to protest the Pakistan's ad hoc administration of Gilgit-Baltistan. The party demanded political freedom and democratic rights, and an end to the Frontier Crimes Regulations. The party was banned by Ayub Khan's martial law administration. [19]
Subsequently, Khan joined the Pakistan People's Party. He was arrested by the Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto government in 1973 due to political differences and put in prison. [20]
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According to a report on Radio Pakistan, Khan was awarded a Military Cross for bravery by the British Indian Army in 1944, when he fought in Burma as part of the Jammu and Kashmir troops in the Second World War. [22] He was awarded the title of Fakhr-e-Kashmir by the Azad Kashmir government and Tamgha-i-Jurat by the Pakistani government. [1] He was also given the title of Fateh-e-Gilgit wa Baltistan locally (Liberator of Gilgit-Baltistan).[ citation needed ]
The Indo-Pakistani war of 1947–1948, also known as the first Kashmir war, was a war fought between India and Pakistan over the princely state of Jammu and Kashmir from 1947 to 1948. It was the first of four Indo-Pakistani wars between the two newly independent nations. Pakistan precipitated the war a few weeks after its independence by launching tribal lashkar (militias) from Waziristan, in an effort to capture Kashmir and to preempt the possibility of its ruler joining India.
Gilgit is a city in Pakistani-administered Gilgit–Baltistan in the disputed Kashmir region. It is the capital of the Gilgit-Baltistan region. The city is located in a broad valley near the confluence of the Gilgit and the Hunza rivers. It is a major tourist destination in Pakistan, serving as a hub for trekking and mountaineering expeditions in the Karakoram mountain range.
Skardu is a city located in Pakistan administered Gilgit-Baltistan in the disputed Kashmir region. Skardu serves as the capital of Skardu District and the Baltistan Division. It is situated at an average elevation of nearly 2,500 metres above sea level in the Skardu Valley, at the confluence of the Indus and Shigar rivers. It is an important gateway to the eight-thousanders of the nearby Karakoram mountain range. The Indus River running through the region separates the Karakoram from the Ladakh Range.
The Gilgit Agency was an agency within the British Indian Empire. It encompassed the subsidiary states of the princely state of Jammu and Kashmir situated along the northern border. The primary objective of establishing the Gilgit Agency was to bolster and fortify these regions, particularly in the context of concerns about Russian encroachment in the area. The subsidiary states encompassed Hunza, Nagar and other states in the present day districts of Gupis-Yasin, Ghizer, Darel, Tangir and Diamer. The agency headquarters was based in the town of Gilgit, within the Gilgit tehsil of Jammu and Kashmir.
The following is a timeline of the Kashmir conflict, a territorial conflict between India, Pakistan and, to a lesser degree, China. India and Pakistan have been involved in four wars and several border skirmishes over the issue.
Gilgit-Baltistan, formerly known as the Northern Areas, is a region administered by Pakistan as an administrative territory and consists of the northern portion of the larger Kashmir region, which has been the subject of a dispute between India and Pakistan since 1947 and between India and China since 1959. It borders Azad Kashmir to the south, the province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa to the west, the Wakhan Corridor of Afghanistan to the north, the Xinjiang region of China to the east and northeast, and the Indian-administered union territories of Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh to the southeast.
The Gilgit Scouts was a paramilitary force within the Gilgit-Baltistan region in northern Pakistan. They were raised by the British Raj in 1913, on behalf of the princely state of Jammu and Kashmir, to police the Gilgit Agency, which formed the northern frontier of British India. The force was composed of local men recruited by British commanders.
Brigadier Sher Jung Thapa MVC was a military officer of the Jammu and Kashmir State Forces and later the Indian Army. Revered as the Hero of Skardu, he was a recipient of the Indian Army's second highest gallantry award, the Maha Vir Chakra (MVC).
Gilgit-Baltistan is an administrative territory of Pakistan that borders the province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa to the west, Azad Kashmir to the southwest, Wakhan Corridor of Afghanistan to the northwest, the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region of China to the north, and the Indian-administered region of Jammu and Kashmir to the south and south-east.
The history of Azad Kashmir, a disputed part of the Kashmir region currently administered by Pakistan, is related to the history of the Kashmir region during the Dogra rule. Azad Kashmir borders the Pakistani provinces of Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa to the south and west respectively, Gilgit–Baltistan to the north, and the Indian union territory of Jammu and Kashmir to the east. The region is claimed by India and has been the subject of a dispute between India and Pakistan since 1947.
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Hunza District is a district of Pakistan-administered Gilgit-Baltistan in the disputed Kashmir region. It is one of the 14 districts of the Gilgit-Baltistan region. It was established in 2015 by the division of the Hunza–Nagar District in accordance with a government decision to establish more administrative units in Gilgit-Baltistan. The district headquarters is the town of Karimabad.
In spring 1947, an uprising against the Maharaja Hari Singh of Jammu and Kashmir broke out in the Poonch jagir, an area bordering the Rawalpindi district of West Punjab and the Hazara district of the North-West Frontier Province in the future Pakistan. It was driven by grievances such as high taxes, the Maharaja's neglect of World War veterans, and above all, Muslim nationalism with a desire to join Pakistan. The leader of the rebellion, Sardar Ibrahim Khan, escaped to Lahore by the end of August 1947 and persuaded the Pakistani authorities to back the rebellion. In addition to the backing, Prime Minister Liaquat Ali Khan authorised an invasion of the state, by the ex-Indian National Army personnel in the south and a force led by Major Khurshid Anwar in the north. These invasions eventually led to the First Kashmir War fought between India and Pakistan, and the formation of Azad Kashmir provisional government. The Poonch jagir has since been divided across Azad Kashmir, administered by Pakistan and the state of Jammu and Kashmir, administered by India.
Muhammad Aslam Khan better known as Colonel Pasha, The Legend of Baltistan, and Laji, was a former one-star rank Pakistan Army officer, businessman, and founder of the Shangrila Resort. Notably, as the leader of 'D' Company, he led his troops during World War II in capturing Kennedy Peak (Myanmar), which the Americans had failed to conquer. For this achievement, he was awarded the Military Cross by Field Marshal Auchinleck.
William Alexander BrownMBESI was a British military officer based in British-ruled India. He is best known for his actions during the Partition of India, when he assisted the locals of the Gilgit Agency and led a coup d'état, codenamed Operation Datta Khel, against Hari Singh, the Maharaja of the erstwhile princely state of Jammu and Kashmir. The successful coup ultimately resulted in the Gilgit Agency becoming a part of Pakistani-administered Kashmir following the First Indo−Pakistani War.
Bunji Bridge is a suspension bridge on the Indus River near Bunji, a town in the Astore District of Gilgit-Baltistan, Pakistan. It was first built in the 19th century by the Maharaja Pratap Singh's government of the princely state of Jammu and Kashmir. Its wooden girders were burnt down during the 1947 Gilgit Rebellion and subsequently repaired. It fell into disuse and neglect in recent decades. It was restored by the recently established Government of Gilgit-Baltistan in 2012 after the 2010 Indus floods highlighted its value. The bridge is said to serve as a vital link between the town of Gilgit and the locations in the Astore District.
Bunji (Urdu:بنجی) is a town in Astore District of Gilgit-Baltistan region in Pakistan. It was historically important, being on the edge of the ancient Yagistan. It was economically a hub for barter trade between Yagistan and Dogras. The distance from Bunji to Gilgit is about 50 kilometres (31 mi) on the Karakoram Highway. Bunji, located at the junction of three Great Mountain Ranges, has its historical importance. The village has its prominent traces in the socio-political and economical situations of the region in History. Literacy rate of bunji is almost 100 percent except outsider coming from other places for jobs. River Indus covers the village from North to west while from eastern side it is connected with river Astore. Baltistan region joins its territory from the North-East.
Gilgit-Baltistan Independence Day is celebrated on 1 November every year as independence from Dogra Raj in 1947 but Independence day of Baltistan is 14 August 1948. Every 1 November is a holiday in Gilgit-Baltistan, the flag hoisting ceremony is attended by the Governor, Chief Minister, Force Commander Northern Areas along with civil and military officials and war veterans of GB.
In November 1947, the paramilitary force of Gilgit Scouts stationed at Gilgit rebelled against the princely state of Jammu and Kashmir, soon after it acceded to the Indian Union. Under the command of a British officer Major William Brown, they executed a coup d'etat, overthrew the governor Ghansara Singh, and imprisoned him. The Muslim troops of Jammu and Kashmir State Forces stationed at Bunji joined in the rebellion, under the command of Captain Mirza Hassan Khan, imprisoned their own commander Colonel Abdul Majid and eliminated the non-Muslim troops. A provisional government was declared under a local chief Shah Rais Khan, which lasted for about two weeks. On 16 November, a Pakistani political agent Khan Mohammad Alam Khan arrived and took over the administration.
The Action at Tsari occurred during the Indo-Pakistani war of 1947–1948 in the Gilgit-Baltistan sector at Tsari, on the banks of the Indus River near Skardu, from 11 to 12 February 1948. The conflict involved the Gilgit Scouts and the Jammu and Kashmir forces. The Ibex Force of the Gilgit Scouts, led by Major Ehsan, planned an attack on the Tsari outposts along the Indus River. These outposts had been established by Colonel Sher Jung Thapa as a defensive measure and to warn the Skardu garrison in case of an assault. Upon the arrival of the Gilgit Scouts, the Muslim troops stationed at the state forces' outpost, including their commander, Captain Nek Alam, defected to the Gilgit Scouts.