Akhtar Abdur Rahman

Akhtar Abdur Rahman (11 June 1924 – 17 August 1988), was a Pakistan Army general who served as the 5th Chairman Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee from 1987 until his death in 1988. He previously served as the 12th Director-General of Inter-Services Intelligence from 1979 to 1987. During both Indo Pak wars of 1965 and 1971, he oversaw action with his own unit 45 Field Regiment Artillery (Fateh Qasar-i- Hind 1971) in Sundra and Hussainiwala sectors respectively.

General Akhtar Abdur Rahman NI(M) HI(M) TI(M) SBt
5th Chairman Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee
In office 29 March 1987 – 17 August 1988
Preceded by	Rahimuddin Khan
Succeeded by	Iftikhar Ahmed Sirohey
12th Director-General of Inter-Services Intelligence
In office April 1979 – 29 March 1987
Preceded by	Muhammad Riaz Khan
Succeeded by	Hamid Gul
Adjutant general GHQ
In office 1977–1979
General Officer Commanding (GOC) of the 12th Infantry Division
In office 1974–1977
Personal details
Born	11 June 1924 Peshawar, British India(now in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan)
Died	17 August 1988(1988-08-17) (aged 64) Bahawalpur, Pakistan
Cause of death	Plane crash
Spouse	Rashida Akhtar Khan (m. 1951–1988)
Children	Akbar Akhtar Khan, Humayun Akhtar Khan, Haroon Akhtar Khan, Ghazi Akhtar Khan
Alma mater	Government College University Faisalabad
Occupation	General, Army Officer, Soldier
Civilian awards	Sitara-e-Basalat
Military service
Allegiance	Pakistan
Branch/service	Pakistan Army
Years of service	1947–1988
Rank	General
Unit	45 Field Regiment Artillery (Fateh Qasar -i- Hind 1971)
Commands	45 Field Regiment Artillery (Fateh Qasar -i- Hind 1971), Artillery Headquarters of 4 Corps, GOC 12th Army Division, Murree DG Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI)
Battles/wars	Indo-Pakistan War of 1947 Indo-Pakistan War of 1965 Indo-Pakistan War of 1971 Soviet–Afghan War
Military awards	Nishan-e-Imtiaz (Military) Hilal-e-Imtiaz (Military) Sitara-e-Basalat Tamgha-e-Imtiaz (Military)

As the DG ISI, General Akhtar collaborated with the Central Intelligence Agency and masterminded the resistance network of the Afghan Mujahideen against the Soviet Union, eventually managing to force the Soviets out of Afghanistan. Due to his close friendship with President of Pakistan General Zia-ul-Haq, General Akhtar was widely considered to be the second most powerful man in the country during General Zia's eleven-year military dictatorship. He died in a plane crash which also killed General Zia and the US Ambassador to Pakistan, Arnold Lewis Raphel. After his death, his sons, Humayun Akhtar Khan and Haroon Akhtar Khan, became politicians and were eventually elected as the Members of Parliament and headed the key ministerial portfolios several times.

Early life and education

Akhtar Abdur Rahman was born on 11 June 1924 in Peshawar, to a Kakazai Pashtun family. Akhtar's father, Abdur Rahman Khan, was a doctor at a government hospital over here. He lost his father at the tender age of four and was raised by his mother, after the family moved to East Punjab in British India. He studied at the Bishop Cotton School, Shimla in Himachal Pradesh, India, before enrolling himself in the Government College University (Faisalabad) in 1941, subsequently earning a bachelor's degree in Science and Statistics in 1945, followed by a Master of Science in Economics in 1947.

Military career

Rising through the ranks

General Akhtar Abdur Rahman joined the British Indian Army in 1946, before becoming Captain in the Pakistan Army three years later. After witnessing traumatic events during the partition, Abdur Rahman was appointed as an instructor at the Artillery School in Nowshera. Later, he was selected for an infantry training course with the British Army, and was sent on deputation to complete a course in the United Kingdom. Upon returning to Pakistan, he was promoted to the rank of a major and posted as a military adviser to the East-Pakistan Army from April 1954 to October 1954. He was later transferred back to General combatant headquarters (GHQ) as a staff officer, a position he held from April 1956 to February 1957. He actively participated in the Indo-Pakistani War of 1965 and was appointed at IV Corps as an operational field officer. In the 1965 war, he gallantly defended the Lahore sector, which led to him being promoted to lieutenant-colonel, but he remained second-in-command of the artillery regiment in Lahore. After cease fire in September 1965, newly promoted Lt Colonel Akhtar commanded his unit 45 Field Regiment Artillery and moved it to Pakistani occupied territory of war in Sundra Sector where his unit 45 Field Artillery remained deployed till February 1966. After the war, he was promoted to the rank of colonel, while being stationed with the IV Corps. Later, he was promoted to the rank of brigadier and transferred to the northern areas of the country, where he commanded an infantry brigade in Azad Kashmir.

In 1971 Indo Pak War, just before his promotion to a Major General, he again saw his own 45 Field Regiment Artillery in action at Hussainiwala Sector where 45 Field displayed tremendous valour in achieveing a bold victory over Qasar-i-Hind Citadel. His unit 45 Field Regiment Artillery was later awarded battle honor of 'Fateh Qasar -i- Hind 1971' by Army Headquarters, as he was instrumental in capturing the Indian fortress of Qaiser-e-Hind. Later he was promoted to the two-star general rank of a major-general, and served as the general officer commanding (GOC) of the 12th Infantry Division stationed in Murree. As the GOC of the 12th Infantry Division, General Akhtar was considered very close to Prime Minister Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto and personally received him whenever he visited the command office of the 12th Division. He did not take part in the 1977 military coup and privately opposed the martial law to remove the Prime minister Bhutto. Six months after the military coup of 1977, he was appointed as the adjutant general at the General Headquarters, which would last two years. During this time, General Akhtar became aware of a conspiracy in which Lieutenant-General Faiz Ali Chishti of X Corps, a close associate of General Zia-ul-Haq, secretly became rebellious and conspired to stage a military coup in the country. As early as of 1979, Akhtar received a call from General Chishti and met him at his office in Chaklala Military District (CMD). At this meeting, General Chishti informed him of the conspiracy that aimed to topple General Zia-ul-Haq and sought his assistance. According to the News International's intelligence unit, Chishti was under the impression that since Akhtar had not been promoted, he would accept this invitation; especially when he was promised that after the coup worked out successfully, he would not only be promoted but would also become one of the pillars of the new regime. After returning to the GHQ, General Akhtar contacted General Zia-ul-Haq and foiled the plot against Zia. In June 1979 after the counter-coup had been foiled, President General Zia-ul-Haq awarded General Akhtar a promotion to Lieutenant General and appointed him Director General of the ISI.

Soviet–Afghan War

When the Soviet Union deployed its 40th Army in Afghanistan, Pakistan's top military base led by Akhtar, believed that Pakistan would be the Soviet Union's next target. They felt that because of Pakistan's strategic location and given the fact that it had warm water ports in the Arabian Sea, it was a prime target for future invasion. Considering the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan threatened Pakistan's national security, Pakistan's premier intelligence agency, the ISI, headed by General Akhtar, started providing financial, military, and strategic assistance to the Afghan Mujahideen. The ISI received billions of dollars in military assistance from the CIA and Saudi Arabia, to train and command the Afghan rebels in a bid to defeat the Soviets. This covert operation was known as Operation Cyclone, and was executed with the CIA, providing the money and weapons, the ISI training, commanding the Afghan Mujahideen groups, and the Mujahideen conducting guerrilla warfare, ultimately leading to the Soviet withdrawal from Afghanistan. During this time, General Akhtar developed a highly effective working relationship with key figures in the United States including CIA Director William Casey and Congressman Charlie Wilson.

While he was still DG ISI, General Akhtar's influence on Pakistan's atomic weapons program grew and he worked tirelessly to collect colleagues around him who were equally dynamic and determined to make the ISI an organization that would influence the domestic and external policies of the country. It was under him that the ISI became recognized as one of the most powerful spy agencies in the world. In 1987, at the pinnacle of his career after having achieved remarkable success in the Afghan war and protecting Pakistan's Nuclear Program, General Akhtar was promoted to the four-star rank and was appointed Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee, the highest ranking four-star rank in the Pakistan Armed Forces.

Death and investigation

On 17 August 1988, General Akhtar Abdur Rahman died in a plane crash along with several other high-profile generals including Zia-ul-Haq, the sixth and current president of Pakistan at the time, and the US Ambassador to Pakistan, Arnold Lewis Raphel. General Akhtar had accompanied Zia to Bahawalpur in his C-130B Hercules presidential aircraft jet, to witness a US M1 Abrams tank demonstration. After the generals witnessed the demonstration, it was time to leave. The aircraft departed from Bahawalpur Airport and was expected to reach Islamabad International Airport after a few hours. Takeoff was smooth, but shortly after, about 2+1⁄2 minutes into the flight, the control tower lost contact with the aircraft. Witnesses who saw the plane in the air claimed that it was flying erratically and that it nosedived and exploded on impact, killing all 31 passengers on board. Shortly after the plane crash, the senate chairman, Ghulam Ishaq Khan, became president and announced General Zia's death on radio and TV. [113] There is speculation that various state intelligence agencies including the American CIA, the Soviet KGB, the Indian RAW, the Israeli MOSSAD and the Afghan KHAD (in retaliation of Pakistani support for the Mujahideen in Afghanistan), or an alliance of the four intelligence agencies along with the dissident groups in the Pakistan Army, were involved in the incident.

Not long after, a board of inquiry was set up to investigate. It concluded 'the most probable cause of the crash was a criminal act of sabotage perpetrated in the aircraft'. It also suggested that poisonous gases were released that incapacitated the passengers and crew, which explains why no Mayday signal was given.[116] There was also speculations about other facts involving the details of the investigation. Although a flight recorder (black box) was installed in the aircraft, it was not located after the crash. To this day, the cause of the plane crash remains unknown and has given a rise to many conspiracy theories.

Personal life

General Akhtar married Rashida Akhtar Khan in 1951 and had four children: Akbar Akhtar Khan (born 1953), Humayun Akhtar Khan (born 1955), Haroon Akhtar Khan (born 1957), and Ghazi Akhtar Khan (born 1959).

Controversies

Corruption charges

In one of the New York Times investigations, General Akhtar Abdur Rahman, as the head of Pakistani intelligence agency, helped funnel billions of dollars in cash and other aid from the United States and other countries for the Mujahedeen in Afghanistan, to support their fight against the Soviet Union. The same report mentioned that a Credit Suisse account was opened in 1985, in the name of three of General Abdur Rahman's sons. Years later, the account would grow to hold $3.7 million, as what the leaked records show. According to the paper, two of the general's sons, Akbar Akhtar Khan, the oldest of General Akhtar's children, and Haroon Akhtar Khan, did not respond to the requests for comment on the reporting project. In a text message, Ghazi Akhtar Khan, the youngest of the Akhtar brothers, said the information about the accounts was "not correct," adding, "The content is conjectural." The claims remain unproven.

Awards and decorations

Nishan-e-Imtiaz (Military) (Order of Excellence)
Hilal-e-Imtiaz (Military) (Crescent of Excellence)	Sitara-e-Basalat (Star of Good Conduct)	Tamgha-e-Imtiaz (Military) (Medal of Excellence)	Tamgha-e-Diffa (General Service Medal)
Sitara-e-Harb 1965 War (War Star 1965)	Sitara-e-Harb 1971 War (War Star 1971)	Tamgha-e-Jang 1965 War (War Medal 1965)	Tamgha-e-Jang 1971 War (War Medal 1971)
Pakistan Tamgha (Pakistan Medal) 1947	Tamgha-e-Sad Saala Jashan-e- Wiladat-e-Quaid-e-Azam (100th Birth Anniversary of Muhammad Ali Jinnah)	Tamgha-e-Jamhuria (Republic Commemoration Medal) 1956	Hijri Tamgha (Hijri Medal) 1979

Books mentioning General Akhtar

• Fateh by Haroon-ur-Rasheed
• Silent soldier by Mohammad Yousaf
• The Bear Trap by Mohammad Yousaf and Mark Adkin
• Charlie Wilson's War by George Crile
• Ghost Wars by Steve Coll
• A Case of Exploding Mango's Mohammad Hanif
• Profiles of Intelligence by Brigadier Syed A. I. Tirmizi

See also

• History of the Soviet Union (1985–1991)