Military Digest | A momentous day in the Battle of Asal Uttar: Param Vir Chakra won, Pak brigadier killed in action

Brigadier Ahsan Rasheed Shami was the commander of the Pakistan Army’s 1 Armoured Division Artillery Brigade. On September 10, he advanced on the Khemkaran-Bhikhiwind Road in his jeep, trying to assess the delays that were being caused to Pakistani armoured regiments along the road.

Strictly speaking, he had no role to play up ahead with the leading elements of the attacking force. However, an overconfident Brig Shami drove the jeep himself, complete with his flag and starplate, and accosted the armoured brigade commander on what was causing the delay.

Contrary to subsequent Indian accounts that the general officer commanding of Pak 1 Armoured Division was also travelling in the same jeep, this was not so. Brig Shami had, in fact, asked the armoured brigade commander to jump into his jeep, and they drove up ahead.

According to Major (later Lt Col) Sami Ud Din Ahmed, who was leading a squadron of Pak 24 Cavalry, he saw the conversation between Brig Shami and Brig Bashir, the armoured brigade commander.

“Bash hop into my jeep. There is nobody there. Why are these chaps not advancing,” Brig Shami reportedly told Brig Bashir as quoted by Maj Sami in an interview years later.

The Pakistani Major went on to recount that two Indian tanks were burning by the road outside Chima village, and Brig Shami stopped the jeep to examine them. “They were examining the tanks beyond the point where a soldier was standing with a board saying ‘no veh beyond this point’ when suddenly a burst of machine gun fire came. Brig Shami was driving the jeep, the burst hit him and he collapsed. Brig Basheer and his G3 (GSO 3, a staff officer of Brigade Hqs), Capt Asmat Beg Humayun, both ran into nearby sugarcane fields,” recalled Maj Sami. The Pakistani brigade commander was later rescued by Pak 24 Cavalry tanks.

Naushad Mohammad Khan was the Indian soldier who had shot dead the Pakistani brigadier, making Shami the highest-ranking Pakistani officer to die in the 1965 war.

Brig Shami’s body was recovered by the Indian troops, and he was buried on the battlefield. Later, after the ceasefire, his remains were repatriated to Pakistan and buried in Lahore.

Abdul Hamid destroys 4 Patton tanks

On September 9 and 10, the Pakistanis made sustained attacks on Indian positions in the villages around Asal Uttar. The Indian positions had been strengthened with the induction of an armoured brigade, and infantry battalion 4 Grenadiers was deployed just outside Chima village to check the enemy advance.

On September 9, CQMH Abdul Hamid destroyed three Pakistani tanks with his 106 mm anti tank recoilless gun mounted on a jeep. The brigade commander immediately recommended him for the award of Maha Vir Chakra, the second-highest gallantry award

The Pakistanis resumed their attack on September 10, and CQMH Abdul Hamid showed more bravery by destroying a fourth enemy tank with his recoilless gun. However, immediately afterwards, an enemy tank targeted his jeep, scoring a direct hit, which killed him instantly.

CQMH Abdul Hamid’s bravery award was upgraded to Param Vir Chakra, which was received by his widow, Rasoolan Bibi. Abdul Hamid was buried a few yards away from the spot where he laid down his life in battle and where his legacy lives ever since. The Indian Army has constructed a befitting memorial to him at the spot, with a vanquished Pakistani Patton tank standing guard on the main road with its turret lowered in defeat.