Old Memories-Follow Up Major Askari

 Old Memories-Follow Up Major Askari

 Analyzing Quixotic and Myopic views of so called leading western analysts about the USA and NATO failure in Afghanistan  https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09TN493BV/ref=cm_sw_r_tw_dp_R8Y2HQVS7XAPRG21V004 via @amazon

Theo Farrell's Book "Unwinnable" Critically Examined and Reviewed by Agha H A... https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09TRKYVF5/ref=cm_sw_r_tw_dp_TGSBDJDA275QA41FVC7K via @amazon

Hamid Hussain

Thanks to many for their corrections, additions & commnets especially Major Askari's son for photographs of his father. 

Second Lt. Khawaja Hassan Askari (Shoulder badge clearly shows that he was comissioned in 7 Cavalry)

Jahanzeb

Captain Khawaja Hassan Askari; Adjutant of Governor General BodyguardsGovernor General's Bodyguards (GGB), early 1950s. Major Jahanzeb Khan (Commandant) and Captain Khawaja Hassan Askari (Adjutant)           

Units:  Shoulder badge clearly shows that he was commissioned in 7 Cavalry.  Some Bengali officers doubt that he served with East Bengal Regiment. Probably he served with East Pakistan Rifles.

Bengali Elite & Independence of Bangladesh:  Aristocrats of Bengal - including the Nawab of Dhaka and other major baronial seats, were either Bengali Hindus or Muslims from non-Bengali (largely Pashtun, Turkic or Persian) ancestry who did not integrate with their Bengali-Muslim wards. They remained divided along the Ashraf-Atraf line and did not associate with the Bengali nationalist movement which mainly represented a nascent Bengali-Muslim middle class supported by a Bengali-Hindu minority in East Bengal. Askari belonged to the so-called Ashraf group.

A few such originally non-Bengali families who rose to prominence, closely aligned with the Awami League-led nationalist campaign against Pakistani over lordship (e.g., the Rehman Sobhan and Farooq Sobhan brothers in the economist/diplomatic realm, and the Sohail Rahman/Salman Rahman brothers from the industrial/commercial sector), but they are the exception rather than the norm. Some Ismaili/Bohra Muslim non-Bengali trading/industrial families have also stayed back in Bangladesh - the Ispahanis (originally from Isfahan) being the most prominent.

First Indian CO of 1/1 Punjab:  I mentioned that Sher Ali Khan Pataudi was the first Indian CO of 1/1 Punjab.  There emerged some confusion that Afzal Janjua (uncle of Pakistan army Chief late General Asif Nawaz) was the first Indian CO of 1/1 Punjab.  Afzal was commissioned in 2/1 Punjab.  Pataudi commanded 1/1 Punjab during the war and Afzal commanded the same battalion from 1946 to March 1948.

The picture showing Jahanzeb Khan opened another box of historical butterflies and his family's story is so fascinating that I'll send a separate write up.  Stay tuned for another saga of the Raj.

Regards,

Hamid