Major Tufail Muhammed Shaheed, the second recipient of Nishan-e-Haider, the highest military award of Pakistan, was remembered on his day of martyrdom. Major Tufail was born in Hoshiarpur in 1914 and commissioned in the 16 Punjab regiment in 1943. After a distinguished career, which included several instructional and command appointments in his own battalion and also in the Civil Armed Forces, he was posted to the East Pakistan Rifles in 1958 as a Company Commander, PTV News reported on Friday.
In August 1958, Indian troops captured a village in East Pakistan. Major divided his men in three groups and it was decided that they would launch the assault during the dark hours of August 7, 1958. He encircled an illegal Indian post, which violated the internationally recognized boundary between the two countries, in the Lakshmipur area.
When Major Tufail's group was about 15 yards from enemy, they came under heavy fire and three bullets entered Tufail's stomach. Despite the shower of blood from his stomach, he kept moving forward and silenced the machine-gun with a grenade. When another enemy machine-gun opened fire, killing his second in command, Major Tufail destroyed that gun too with a well-aimed grenade. During the hand-to-hand encounter that followed, he noticed the commander of the Indian post moving silently to attack one of his men. Though fatally wounded, Major Tufail crawled towards the enemy commander. He stretched out one of his legs and as the enemy stumbled he hit him in the face with his steel helmet, saving his troop. Major Tufail Muhammed continued directing the operation until the enemy was driven out leaving behind four dead and three prisoners. Tufail was taken to a hospital but he embraced martyrdom the same day on August 7, 1958.
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