Air Marshal Asghar Khan (1922-2018)
Well regarded as “father of the Pakistan Air Force”, Air Marshal Asghar Khan passed away at Abbottabad on 5 January 2018 at the age of 96 years. A contemporary of Marshal of the Air Force Arjan Singh DFC, Asghar Khan served with the Royal Indian Air Force, commanding No.9 Squadron with Hurricanes during the Burma campaign and was later the first RIAF officer to fly the Gloster Meteor Mk.III jet fighter during its evaluation in 1946.
In 1947, on eve of the partition of India, then Wg Cdr Asghar Khan was Chief Flying Instructor at the RIAF’s Advance Flying Training School in Ambala, whose colleague, Wg Cdr KP Nair arranged for a Dakota aircraft to safely airlift Asghar Khan and his family to the newly emerged country of Pakistan, something he was always grateful for. Gp Capt Arjan Singh had at the time of partition been commanding RIAF Kohat and immediately thereafter took over RIAF Ambala in August 1947.
Asghar Khan was particularly close to Arjan Singh, the two remaining sporadically in touch and exchanging greetings whenever they could. After the Marshal’s passing away in September 2017, Asghar Khan sent a hand written letter of condolence. The two had been Chiefs of their respective air forces in 1965 and had ensured that the PAF and the IAF did not get involved in the April 1965 face off between the Indian and Pakistani armies in the Rann of Kutch. However, matters escalated in August 1965 which culminated in an all out war in September 1965 by which time, however, Air Marshal Asghar Khan had handed over the PAF to his successor, Air Marshal Nur Khan.
As recalled by Manmohan Singh Chhina in the Indian Express, Air Marshal Asghar Khan tried to remain in touch with his former Indian Air Force (IAF) colleagues till the very end. He spoke to his RIAF colleague, Squadron Leader Dalip Singh Majithia just nine days earlier and in October, had phoned Chandigarhbased 96-year-old IAF veteran Air Marshal Randhir Singh. The two had served together in Kohat and Miranshah ( in presentday Pakistan) during 1943.
Asghar Khan’s widow, Amina Shamsi, said that her husband had been asking about Dalip Singh Majithia. “He has been very forgetful lately but he remembers him very well.” Khan had been unable to trace him as he had left the IAF early and settled in Uttar Pradesh.
Randhir remembered Khan as “a very fine person and an exceptional pilot too … we learnt so much from him in those days. He was commanding the No.3 Squadron detachment in Miranshah when we were deployed for anti- tribal operations.” “Asghar was a senior Flying Officer and though I was of the same rank and his room-mate, I was junior in service and we used to look up to him.’’
In his Eulogy, the veteran fighter pilot Air Commodore Sajad Haider, PAF recalled that “Air Marshal Asghar Khan propelled the Pakistan Air Force from a rudimentary air force to one of the best air arms in the world, within 18 months as the youngest C-in-C extant. At the age of 36 years, the PAF under his stewardship, created a world military aviation record in formation aerobatics with 16 Sabres performing the loop in front of King Zahir Shah of Afghanistan and a massive crowd watching in awe. Such was the verve, morale and the professional excellence spawned by AM Asghar Khan, by all ranks to perform beyond expectations. That was the indomitable spirit with which the PAF fought the 1965 War, trained, readied and motivated by Asghar Khan (but) who was allowed to quietly retire in what was an intrigue of national leaders, who were planning war in Kashmir in the weeks following his retirement but kept the Air Force C-in-C in the dark. His successor was a well-honed leader and the PAF was led in 1965 by the next best, the intrepid AM Nur Khan.”
For the record, it must be recalled that both Air Marshals Asghar Khan and Nur Khan had studied at the RIMC in Dehra Dun which institution has produced several Chiefs of the Indian Armed Forces as well, including the present CAS, Air Chief Marshal BS Dhanoa.