Mian Hayaud Din

Major General Mian Hayaud Din HJ MBE MC sc, idc (2 July 1910 – 20 May 1965) was a Pakistani military officer and former officer in the British Indian Army during the Second World War.

He saw active service in several campaigns and was an eminent soldier and government official in the early years of the new state of Pakistan, going on to serve at the high profile position of Chief of General Staff.

Mian Hayaud Din was born in Peshawar, the capital of the North-West Frontier Province.

Mian Hayaud Din studied at the Edwardes Mission School and then Islamia College, Peshawar, before being selected in an All-India competition to be a cadet at the Royal Military College, Sandhurst.

This selection process was to identify two cadets per term to be enrolled at Sandhurst, in keeping with the new British policy goal of recruiting Indians to serve as officers in the Indian Army.

At the time, most troops in the Indian Army were Indians and were commanded by British officers.

He was commissioned a King's Commissioned Indian Officer from Sandhurst on the Unattached List, Indian Army as of 28 January 1932, he was posted for his one-year regimental attachment to the 2nd battalion Royal Scots Regiment.

He was the first non-British Officer to be so attached.

This service commenced in Quetta, Baluchistan, where he met Ahmad Yar Khan, the Khan of Kalat, who was also attached to the same Regiment and they became close friends.

In March 1933 he joined the 4th battalion, 12th Frontier Force Regiment of the British Indian Army.

He was particularly effective in command of Sikh troops, as he was one of the few Muslim Officers in the British Indian Army certified as fluent in speaking, reading and writing Gurmukhi, the Panjabi language of the Sikhs.

From his childhood in Peshawar, he was fluent in Pashto (his mother tongue) Persian; Hindko (the dialect of Panjabi spoken by the non-Pashtun residents of the City of Peshawar) and Urdu (the language of Indian Muslims), in addition to having taken French while at Sandhurst.

He served on the North West Frontier in the 1930s and was posted to the 11th battalion, 12th Frontier Force Regiment (the Indian Territorial Force battalion) on 20 September 1938 at Nowshera near Peshawar.

Appointed Local Captain 16 November 1938 to 8 March 1939, then received substantive promotion to Captain 27 August 1939.

He was appointed Adjutant 4 September 1939.

The battalion was embodied 4 September 1939 as part of the Nowshera Brigade, which was completed by 20 September, at Nowshera.

It moved at the end of September 1939 to Dacca in East Bengal to relieve the 2nd battalion, 14th Punjab Regiment.

There he extensively trekked through the jungles of the Chittagong Hill Tracts.

The battalion trained at Dacca as part of the Eastern Bengal Brigade Area and performed internal security duties for one year.

It moved to Quetta on 16 November 1940.

It performed internal security duties at Quetta under the command of Baluchistan District.

It was converted to an active battalion as the 14th (Suba Sarhad) Battalion, 12th Frontier Force Regiment at Quetta on 15 September 1941.

He was made a Member in Military Division of The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (MBE) for service as adjutant with 11/12th FFR in the London Gazette 1 July 1941.

Attended the Staff College, Quetta (4th war course) 21 July – 4 December 1941.

His classmates included, among others, Major Muhammad Ayub Khan, later to become President of Pakistan.

With Hitler's attack on Stalingrad it was thought a possible breakthrough to the Middle-Eastern oilfields may occur, so Indian Army units were transferred to Iraq.

For his meritorious services on the staff as a General Staff Officer 2nd grade in Iraq and Persia with the Persia And Iraq Force he was mentioned in dispatches in the London Gazette on 5 August 1943.

Posted to Burma in September 1944 he was appointed second in command of the 9th battalion, 12th Frontier Force Rifles, also known as ‘Naubara’ and currently 14th Frontier Force Regiment.

After two previous battalion commanders were wounded, in February 1945 he was promoted to battalion commander and later decorated with the Military Cross for gallantry.

In addition, he was mentioned in dispatches again in the London Gazette twice more: 27 September 1945 and 9 May 1946.

Lt Col Hayaud Din then served with 80th Brigade still commanding 9th battalion 12th Frontier Force Regiment as part of Allied Land Forces French Indochina (ALFFIC) in South East Asia under the overall command of Major-General Douglas David Gracey Commander of Allied Land Forces, French Indo-China (later Vietnam), in 1945–1946.

He was selected by General Gracey to receive the sword of surrender from the Commander in Chief of Japanese forces in that theatre of operations.

For his distinguished conduct and gallantry in assisting French forces, Mian Hayaud Din was later awarded the Cross of Commandeur of the Légion d'Honneur, by the French Government.

Promoted to temporary Colonel he was selected to attend the first post-war course at the Joint Services Staff College, Latimer, England.

He was the senior Indian Army officer on the course.

In early 1946 he served as the President of the Indian Army Selection Board in Pune.

He was then selected as the Deputy Commander of the Indian Army Mission to the Allied Peace Commission in Berlin from late 1946 to late 1947.

He was returning from Berlin in August 1947 as the British withdrew and gave independence to Pakistan.

The battalion was part of 80th Indian Infantry Brigade commanded by Brigadier Stuart Greeves.

The brigade was part of Major General Douglas David Gracey's 20th Indian Division.