Captain Mohammad Iqbal Khan Shaheed

Captain Mohammad Iqbal Khan Shaheed

Captain Muhammad Iqbal Khan was born , on the 15th of November, 1960 in a small village called Pashtoon Garhi, in the then District of Peshawar now delineated in District Nowshera, in the North West Frontier Province  presently called Khyber Pukhtunkhwa of Pakistan. From his very childhood, Muhammad Iqbal Khan was known to be a very brave and daring person. He was pure in the heart and mind and  never bore any grudge towards anyone. I have heard alot about him from my family. My great-grandmother loved him the most of all of her grandchildren. When I was a kid, he used to visit us in Peshawar. I vaguely remember him. I heard that he wanted to become a doctor ever since he was a kid, but then later during his college days, he changed his mind and chose to join the armed forces.

He joined the Pakistan army in 1982. I once visited the castle on Attock bridge where he used to stay. On the 21st of September, 1987 he was sent to Siachin, which is the world's highest battlefield. He led a company consisting of twelve soldiers. He always wanted to embrace Martyrdom. While fighting the enemy, he was severely wounded, but he kept moving forward. He kept climbing the steep mountains of Siachin with a gun in one hand and holding himself with the other. The enemy kept shooting at him, and he kept calling out "Allah-O-Akbar" (Allah is the greatest) "Kafiroun mey aa raha houn" (O enemy of Islam, I'm coming to get you). He destroyed many pickets on his way till he reached the highest picket on the Siachen Glacier, held by the enemy where he waged the fiercest battle and in the process embraced martyrdom on the 25th of September, 1987.

 His body went missing for eleven months in snow, and was finally recovered in action and brought to his native village by his cousin who was also in the Pakistan Army, on the 6th of August 1988. He brought honour to his family and country. He was pious and brave beyond measure and was adequately rewarded with the greatest honour of Shahadat/Martyrdom.

Captain Muhammad Iqbal Khan was awarded the second highest military award, Hilal-e-Jurat by the government of Pakistan while he was still missing in action and presumably missing soldiers do not get the highest gallantry award of Nishan-e-Haider.

The Holy Qur'an says :

(3:169) Al-E-Imran

"And reckon not those who are killed in Allah's way as dead; nay, they are alive (and) are provided sustenance from their Lord;"

(3:170) Al-E-Imran

"Rejoicing in what Allah has given them out of His grace and they rejoice for the sake of those who, (being left) behind them, have not yet joined them, that they shall have no fear, nor shall they grieve."

(3:171) Al-E-Imran

"They rejoice on account of favor from Allah and (His) grace, and that Allah will not waste the reward of the believers."