Lieutenant General

Khwaja Wasiuddin
Born(1920-03-20)20 March 1920
Ahsan Manzil, Bengal, British India (now Dhaka, Bangladesh)
Died22 September 1992(1992-09-22) (aged 72)
Dhaka, Bangladesh
AllegianceBritish Raj British India (1940–1947)
Pakistan Pakistan (1947–1971)
Bangladesh Bangladesh (1973)
Service/branch British Indian Army
 Pakistan Army
 Bangladesh Army
Years of service1940-1973
Rank Lieutenant General
Unit8th Punjab Regiment
Commands held
Battles/wars

Khwaja Wasiuddin (1920–1992) was an army general and diplomat. He started his career as a young officer in the British Indian Army and later became a senior general in Pakistan Army. He was the permanent representative of Bangladesh to the United Nations.

Early life

Khwaja Wasiuddin was born on 20 March 1920 in Ahsan Manzil, Dacca, Bengal Presidency (Present-day Bangladesh).[1] His father Khwaja Shahabuddin was the governor of North-west Frontier Province of Pakistan and member of the Dhaka Nawab family; his father's elder brother was Sir Khawaja Nazimuddin, the second Governor-General of Pakistan and subsequently its second Prime Minister. His mother was Farhat Banu, the niece of sir salimullah and member of the Bengal Legislative Assembly. He studied at Dhaka Muslim High School and later in St Gregory's High School.[1] In 1938 he graduated from Prince of Wales Royal Indian Military College.[1][2]

Career

After graduation, he joined the Indian Military Academy and was commissioned as a Second Lieutenant in April 1940 in the 8th Punjab Regiment of the British Indian Army. He served in the Burma Campaign of World War II.[1] He reached the rank of major by 1943. In 1945 he was promoted to rank of lieutenant colonel and appointed as the additional deputy president of Inter Services Selection Board of British Indian Armed Forces.[1]

Pakistan

After the partition of India he opted for Pakistan Army. In Pakistan, he continued to work in Pakistani Inter Services Selection Board, eventually becoming its president. In 1951 he went for further studies in Camberley Staff College in United Kingdom and subsequently was promoted to the rank of brigadier general. In 1960 he was made the general officer commanding (GOC) of the 14th Division located in East Pakistan's Dhaka and in 1963 he was the commander of 10th Division located in Lahore, West Pakistan.[1] In 1962 he was a provincial martial law administrator.[3] In 1964 he got his higher educations from Imperial Defense College in United Kingdom.[1] In 1967, he was promoted to the rank of Lieutenant General and was appointed as the commander of the II Corps, the headquarters was firstly in Lahore and later was transferred to Multan, Punjab.[1]

Bangladesh

During the Bangladesh Liberation War he was the Master General of Ordnance (MGO) in General Headquarters in Rawalpindi, West Pakistan.[4] In October 1973, he was repatriated to Bangladesh from Pakistan.[5] After returning to Bangladesh he would serve as the ambassador of Bangladesh to Kuwait and France.[1][6] He retired from Bangladesh Army in 1973 and was made the permanent representative of Bangladesh to the United Nations,[7] position he held until 1986.[1] As the representative he supported Indonesia's annexation of East Timor in the United Nation.[8]

Death

He died on 22 September 1992 in Dhaka, Bangladesh.[1]

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 Alamgir, Muhammad. "Wasiuddin, Lt General Khwaja". Banglapedia. Retrieved 10 March 2016.
  2. ↑ Mishra, Sidharth; Singh, Bikram (1997). Where gallantry is tradition : saga of Rashtriya Indian Military College : plantinum jubilee volume, 1997. New Delhi: Allied Publishers. p. 46. ISBN 9788170236498.
  3. ↑ Von Vorys, Karl (2015). Political Development in Pakistan. Princeton University Press. p. 55. ISBN 9781400876389. Retrieved 10 March 2016.
  4. ↑ Niazi, A.A.K. (1998). The Betrayal of East Pakistan. Oxford University Press. p. 81. ISBN 0-19-577727-1.
  5. ↑ Roy, Asish Kumar (2002). Praetorian politics in Bangladesh : 1975–1981. Kolkata: Progressive Publishers. p. 50. OCLC 491399557.
  6. ↑ Badrul Ahsan, Syed (27 March 2012). "Old images from a long-ago war". The Daily Star. Retrieved 10 March 2016.
  7. ↑ Hossain, Golam (1991). Civil-military relations in Bangladesh: a comparative study. Academic Publishers, the University of Michigan. p. 227. ISBN 9789840800452. Retrieved 10 March 2016.
  8. ↑ Krieger, Heike, ed. (1997). East Timor and the International Community: Basic Documents (1st paperback ed.). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. p. 155. ISBN 978-0-521-58134-9.
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