Mian Hayaud Din (2 July 1910 – 20 May 1965) was a Pakistani military officer who served in the British Indian Army during the Second World War and later became Chief of General Staff.
Early life and education Mian Hayaud Din was born in Peshawar, the capital of the North-West Frontier Province. Mian Hayaud Din studied at the Edwardes Mission School and then Islamia College, Peshawar, before being selected in an All-India competition to be a cadet at the Royal Military College, Sandhurst.
Career in the British Indian Army He was commissioned a King's Commissioned Indian Officer from Sandhurst on the Unattached List, Indian Army as of 28 January 1932, he was posted for his one-year regimental attachment to the 2nd battalion Royal Scots Regiment.October 1932 Indian Army List He was the first non-British Officer to be so attached. This service commenced in Quetta, Baluchistan, where he met Ahmad Yar Khan, the Khan of Kalat, who was also attached to the same Regiment and they became close friends.
In March 1933 he joined the 4th battalion, 12th Frontier Force Regiment of the British Indian Army.January 1935 Indian Army List He was particularly effective in command of Sikh troops, as he was one of the few Muslim Officers in the British Indian Army certified as fluent in speaking, reading and writing Gurmukhi, the Panjabi language of the Sikhs. From his childhood in Peshawar, he was fluent in Pashto (his mother tongue) Persian; Hindko (the dialect of Panjabi spoken by the non-Pashtun residents of the City of Peshawar) and Urdu (the language of Indian Muslims), in addition to having taken French while at Sandhurst.
He served on the North West Frontier in the 1930s and was posted to the 11th battalion, 12th Frontier Force Regiment (the Indian Territorial Force battalion) on 20 September 1938 at Nowshera near Peshawar.January 1939 Indian Army List Appointed Local Captain 16 November 1938 to 8 March 1939, then received substantive promotion to Captain 27 August 1939.
He was appointed Adjutant 4 September 1939.April 1940 Indian Army List The battalion was embodied 4 September 1939 as part of the Nowshera Brigade, which was completed by 20 September, at Nowshera. It moved at the end of September 1939 to Dacca in East Bengal to relieve the 2nd battalion, 14th Punjab Regiment.
There he extensively trekked through the jungles of the Chittagong Hill Tracts.
The battalion trained at Dacca as part of the Eastern Bengal Brigade Area and performed internal security duties for one year. It moved to Quetta on 16 November 1940. It performed internal security duties at Quetta under the command of Baluchistan District. It was converted to an active battalion as the 14th (Suba Sarhad) Battalion, 12th Frontier Force Regiment at Quetta on 15 September 1941.
He was made a Member in Military Division of The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (MBE) for service as adjutant with 11/12th FFR in the London Gazette 1 July 1941.The Frontier Force Regiment by Brig. W. E. H. Condon
Attended the Staff College, Quetta (4th war course) 21 July – 4 December 1941. His classmates included, among others, Major Muhammad Ayub Khan, later to become President of Pakistan.
With Hitler's attack on Stalingrad it was thought a possible breakthrough to the Middle-Eastern oilfields may occur, so Indian Army units were transferred to Iraq. For his meritorious services on the staff as a General Staff Officer 2nd grade in Iraq and Persia with the Persia And Iraq Force he was mentioned in dispatches in the London Gazette on 5 August 1943.
Burma Campaign and after Posted to Burma in September 1944 he was appointed second in command of the 9th battalion, 12th Frontier Force Rifles, also known as ‘Naubara’ and currently 14th Frontier Force Regiment. The battalion was part of 80th Indian Infantry Brigade commanded by Brigadier Stuart Greeves.The Frontier Force Regiment by Brig. W. E. H. Condon The brigade was part of Major General Douglas David Gracey's 20th Indian Division. After two previous battalion commanders were wounded, in February 1945 he was promoted to battalion commander and later decorated with the Military Cross for gallantry.The Frontier Force Regiment by Brig. W. E. H. Condon In addition, he was mentioned in dispatches again in the London Gazette twice more: 27 September 1945 and 9 May 1946.
Lt Col Hayaud Din then served with 80th Brigade still commanding 9th battalion 12th Frontier Force Regiment as part of Allied Land Forces French Indochina (ALFFIC) in South East Asia under the overall command of Major-General Douglas David Gracey Commander of Allied Land Forces, French Indo-China (later Vietnam), in 1945–1946. He was selected by General Gracey to receive the sword of surrender from the Commander in Chief of Japanese forces in that theatre of operations. For his distinguished conduct and gallantry in assisting French forces, Mian Hayaud Din was later awarded the Cross of Commandeur of the Légion d'Honneur, by the French Government.
Promoted to temporary Colonel he was selected to attend the first post-war course at the Joint Services Staff College, Latimer, England. He was the senior Indian Army officer on the course.
In early 1946 he served as the President of the Indian Army Selection Board in Pune. He was then selected as the Deputy Commander of the Indian Army Mission to the Allied Peace Commission in Berlin from late 1946 to late 1947. He was returning from Berlin in August 1947 as the British withdrew and gave independence to Pakistan.
Career in the Pakistan Army
Colonel Mian Hayaud Din opted for Pakistan, and was 18th on the officer seniority list of the newly formed Pakistan Army.
Major General Roger Eustace Le Fleming, a British officer, commanded the Waziristan District, from 1944 till June 1948 and was responsible for the long planned withdrawal of regular troops, both Indian and Pakistani, after Independence on 14 August 1947.Roger Eustace Le Fleming A file of his papers on the operation n are available at the National Army Museum, London
Promoted to command the Bannu Brigade in December 1947, he oversaw Operation Curzon, the name given to the withdrawal of troops from the Tribal Areas in Waziristan, bordering South Eastern Afghanistan. He met with tribal elders and informed them that while he and his soldiers were fellow Muslims and largely Pashtuns, as were the tribesmen, any firing on the withdrawing troops would be countered with a crushing response, in keeping with tribal customs of revenge. The tribes offered no resistance and the entire withdrawal was completed peacefully. Three authors disagree as two units were ambushed: in September 1947 1/4th Gurkha Rifles left Wana and were ambushed in the Shahur Tangi defile, in South Waziristan – they had fifty casualties.End of Empire: The British Political Officer and Tribal Administration on the North-West Frontier 1877-1947 by Christopher TripodiFrontier Scouts by Charles Chenevix TrenchAmbush in the Shahur Tangi The 1st 4th P W O Gurkha Rifles in Waziristan June to October 1947 by Robert Williams The second unit was the 4/5th Punjabis who lost eight dead and twenty-seven wounded in an ambush.
He commanded the Bannu Brigade, renamed 102 Brigade, until January 1948.
During the 1947–1948 Kashmir war, Brigadier Hayaud Din fought in the Poonch sector. He led a small group of volunteers, with mobile artillery transported by mules, shelling the airfield at Poonch from the surrounding hills to the point of rendering it unusable. Indian Army garrison forces in the town were preparing to surrender to him when a general cease-fire in all of Kashmir came into effect. For his bravery and successful command of operations, he was recommended by General Sir Douglas Gracey for the equivalent of the British Distinguished Service Order, its 2nd highest gallantry award after the Victoria Cross. As a result, he was awarded the Hilal-i-Jurat, Pakistan's second highest gallantry award.
He was then posted to London in late 1948 as the first military advisor to the Pakistan High Commission in the United Kingdom.
In early 1950, on promotion to major general, he returned to general headquarters and was appointed as the first non-British officer to command 7th (Golden Arrow) Division as its General Officer Commanding at Rawalpindi. When the Rawalpindi Conspiracy 1951 was unfolding, he personally arrested Major General Akbar Khan DSO, then Chief of General Staff and ring-leader of the conspiracy.
In 1952 he attended the Imperial Defence College, London, and on the successful completion of this course, Major General Mian Hayaud Din was appointed the Chief of General Staff of the Pakistan Army.
His deep interest in history and archaeology was reflected in his unique collection of historical books and manuscripts. His military writings are still part of the curriculum taught at the Pakistan Military Academy. He was the author of "One Hundred Glorious Years", a book he wrote for the Centenary Celebrations of the Frontier Force Regiment.
He also wrote articles on the historic forts at Attock and Rohtas, the latter is currently referred to on the Wikipedia website for Rohtas Fort, Pakistan.
In 1954, the Cambridge University Mountaineering Club's Karakoram expedition arrived in Pakistan to scale the unclimbed peak, Rakaposhi. Major General Hayaud Din joined the expedition as liaison officer. Members of this strong expedition included the Austrians Anderl Heckmair and Matthias Rebitsch, the Englishman George Band and the Genevan Dr. Alfred Tissières. The climbing party tried the south-west spur of Rakaposhi which connects with the south-west ridge at the Monk's Head. Base camp was set up at the Kunti glacier. The expedition went up to 6,340m/20,800 ft but bad weather and shortage of time forced it to return to the base camp. A contemporary film of the expedition is in the public domain
In July 1955 Major General Mian Hayaud Din was posted to Washington DC as Chief of the Pakistan Military Mission. Here he was closely involved in all aspects of the USMAAG Program. His close personal friendships with General Nathan Twining, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff; General Thomas White, USAF Chief of Staff; General Earle Wheeler, US Army Chief of Staff, among others, and his excellent relationships with senior civilian members of the Eisenhower Administration's Department of Defence resulted in his being read into the Congressional Record by Senator Strom Thurmond.
For example, in 1958 when the US was considering providing supersonic aircraft to augment the North American F-86 Sabrejet fighters previously provided to the Pakistan Air Force (PAF), it initially intended to provide 100 North American F-100 SuperSabre jets, which could be used in both ground attack and interception, capable of speeds up to Mach 1. He prevailed upon the US Government to supply a smaller number of the Lockheed F-104 Starfighter instead. While this aircraft was primarily intended for high-altitude bomber interception at speeds of Mach 2 and, therefore, more useful in serving Pakistan's military alliance with the West in a possible conflict with the USSR, it had the additional benefit of being a potent psychological deterrent in a more localised conflict scenario. The US provided 10 F104-A single seater versions of these and 2 F104-B twin-seat trainers.
The Commanding Officer of this new squadron was Squadron Leader Mian Sadruddin, who went on to become an Air Vice Marshal and PAF Deputy Chief of Staff. His wingman and 2nd in command was Flight Lt. Jamal Ahmad Khan, who went on to become an Air Chief Marshal and PAF Commander in Chief. Both these officers were outstanding in their flying and command skills, representing the unique combination achieved by the Pakistan military establishment from the 1950s onwards, combining British organizational and command culture with the intensive training and superb technology of the US.