Lt. General Aftab Ahmad Khan (1923 - 1911)

Lieutenant-General Aftab Ahmad Khan, son of late Khan Bahadur Mian Altaf Hussain Khan (1874-1946) and Mehndi Begum (1899-1971), was born in Batala, district Gurdaspur, India on Oct. 22, 1923. After his initial education in Municipal Board (MB) High School Batala, he graduated from Government College, Lyallpur and Lahore, and joined the Indian Military Academy, Dera Dun.

He was commissioned in the Indian Army as a 2nd Lieutenant on 21 June 1942. Soon afterwards he joined the 1st Battalion, 2nd Punjab Regiment in the British Middle East Command. He, as a young officer, served in various regimental appointments for the next two years in Egypt, Palestine, Syria and Lebanon.

In March 1944 his Battalion as part of the 10th Indian Division sailed for Italy and fought against the Germans in World War II as part of the British 8th Army. Major Aftab, then a company commander, returned back home in December 1945. His Battalion soon after joined the 1st Indian Parachute Division and he trained as a paratrooper. In 1947 when the Government of India created the Punjab Boundary Force, Major Aftab served in it till it was disbanded. He ensured safe evacuation of thousands of Hindus and Sikhs from areas lying between the Sutlej and Ravi rivers to India, and escorted to Pakistan safely thousands of Muslims stranded in south-eastern Indian Punjab.

In January 1948 he was posted to Zhob Militia. In the middle of 1949 he saw fighting in the state of Jammu and Kashmir. Major Aftab served in the Frontier Corps for 3 ½ years in Baluchistan. In 1951, on posting back to the Army, he was posted first as a company commander and then a Brigade Major of an Infantry Brigade in Peshawar. After attending the Staff College in 1952, he took command of the 14th Battalion, 1st Punjab Regiment for the next 3 years. In 1956 he was posted as General Staff Officer-1 in Murree. After 3 ½ years as Staff Officer, he got command of the 1st Battalion, 1st Punjab Regiment in Lahore and paraded the Regiment on its 200th raising day. Field Marshall M. Ayub Khan (President of Pakistan) took the salute at the march past.

After having been posted as Colonel Staff of a Division, Colonel Aftab was promoted to command a Brigade and fought in defense of Lahore on the Wagah border, extremely successfully in the 1965 war with India. After various staff appointments in General Headquarters, he commanded a division in Chamb Sector in 1972 followed by command of a Corps in the rank of Lieutenant General from where he retired after 34 years service. This was followed by his assignment as an Ambassador of Pakistan for 5 years.

General Aftab raised the X Corps in 1974, and commanded it through 1976. As an ode to General Aftab, the insignia of the X Corps features a Rising Sun or Aftab (in Urdu) with 10 rays extruding from it.

General Aftab is a graduate of Staff College, Quetta - 1952; United States Army Command and Staff College, Fort Leavenworth, USA, 1961-62; Army War Course, Command and Staff College Quetta - 1967; and Royal College of Defense Studies, London - 1971. He was mentioned in Dispatches in 1965 war. He holds 2 gallantry awards for his work as Pakistan's Ambassador in Philippines in 1984-86: Rank of Datu in the Order of Sikatuna, Government of Philippines, 8 April, 1986, awarded by Corazon Aquino, President of the Republic of Philippines; and Das Grosse Verdienst Kreuz der Bundesrepublik Deutschland (Commander's Cross of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany) in recognition of his exceptional services to the State and People of Germany, 9 May 1986.

General Aftab married Nasreen Hayat (d. 2001), daughter of Mohammed Hayat Khan (1890-1975) of Kapurthala State and Lyallpur, in 1960, and they have two children Umbreen Inaam (Khan) and Shahbaz Aftab Khan.  General Aftab’s siblings include Professor Mian Namdar Khan (1915-2002), Air Marshal Iftakhar Ahmad Khan (b. 1925), Mrs. Ismat Akhter, and Mrs. Najma Chaudhry.

Aftab passed away July 12, 2011, at the age of 88, and was laid to rest with traditional military honors for retired commanders.

See also Wikipedia for General Aftab's Bio