- Muhammed Zafar Khan
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Muhammad Zafar Khan Born 1926 Died 3 December 1971 Allegiance Pakistan Rank Brigadier General Unit Pakistan Army Awards Hilal-i-Jurat Brigadier General Muhammed Zafar Khan was the first South Asian Commander in the Cavalry.[clarification needed]
Khan belongs to the Minhas Rajput clan of Chakwal. His father Sirdar (or Sardar) Bahadur, Raja Fazal Dad Khan was a hereditary Landlord (or Zamindar) and was commissioned with a British Army cavalry unit.
Five of Muhammed Zafar Khan brothers (in total he had seven brothers) joined the Army and became officers. His elder brother, Muhammed Akbar Khan was the first Indian Muslim to become a General in the British Indian Army. His brother, Brigadier Muhammad Anwar Khan was the first Indian Commander of Cavalry and his brother Major General Muhammed Iftikhar Khan was an officer inherited by the Pakistan Army from British India. He had been nominated to become the first local Commander in Chief of the Pakistan Army after General Douglas David Gracey's retirement. However, his death in a tragic plane crash in 1949 was a disaster for the newly formed country.
References
- Pakistan's Drift into Extremism, Hassan Abbas, 2005
- Pakistani Generals, A. K Anwar, 1992
- Akbar Khan, a biography, Khalid Akbar, 2006. Khalid Akbar is his son.
Categories:- British Indian Army generals
- Pakistani generals
- Members of the Order of the British Empire
- Pakistani military personnel
- Pakistani writers
- Indian Army personnel of World War II
- People from Chakwal District
- Chakwal District
- 1971 deaths
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