Ex Major General Akbar Khan,DSO

Ex Brigadier Siddique Satti MC

by

Agha.H.Amin

It was through the memorable poetry of Ex Brigadier Siddique Satti MC of

the Pindi Conspiracy fame that I discovered what the Indian Army had gone
through in the First World War. "My brother was blown to bits in Flanders, my
cousins died of Maggots in their wounds at Kutalmara" so ran Siddique's
verses.

He had spent some years of his life incarcerated in the notorious Mach Jail and
it was a treat to spend an evening with him! His anecdotes, recollections and
yarns were a finer substitute for a chemical substance of another kind !

It was through Siddique that I discovered that the Indians had done something
at the Suez Canal in the First World War!

Saddique wrote brilliantly ! His writings contained that pain and bitterness
which only a political prisoner can discover in the ice cold cells of Mach Jail !
A jail where the sunlight never reaches many cells !

A relative of his one Mr Yasir Manzoor had the following to relate about him
on the face book :--

When Pakistan came into being,Brigadier Sadiq Satti was attending Staff
College Course at Camberly (England). An Indian General met him there and
offered him early promotion, if he joined the Indian Army. In response, Brig
Sadiq posed him a question: "Sir, my village is located at a hill top. Do you
know what I would do, if the whole of my clan decides to jump down?" The
Indian General thought that being an educated man, Brig Sadiq should have
persuaded his men to refrain from such a suicidal action but he was shocked
when Brigadier Sadiq Satti told him, "Sir, I would jump with them. It is
immaterial whether I survive or die. This is how we live. My village has
decided to join Pakistan. I am with them."

http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=150481408324685&v=wall
I met Brigadier Saddique Satti in Islamabad in 1981. He was then busy
translating Iqbals verse in English.

Man never suffers defeat , without perishing he goes into retreat , so Saddique
translated Iqbals thoughts !

He lived in Islamabads F 7 sector and later shifted to the E sector.

Islamabad was dripping with US Dollars of the Afghan war and was being
transformed from a ghost town with few cars into a dirty rich capital of a state
whose policy has always been to sell its soul and its soldiers for US Dollars !

Saddique Satti was a spirited old man ! Old in years but young in spirits !

He had much to share about how the Pakistani state was buggered
and destroyed right fromthe early years by its own politicians and generals.

His nephews had been my fathers class fellows and friends at the Gordon
College Rawalpindi.

Its a tragedy that Saddique Satti did not leave any reminiscences .These would
have been a first rate source for initial militart and political history of Pakistan.

The Sattis that I saw in the military were nowhere near Saddique Satti in calibre
or elan . But then Saddique Satti was a great man not beacuse he was a Satti
Rajput but because he was great !

I am extremely sceptical about the assertion that belonging to a tribe can make
a man great ! A typically flawed assertion !

In terms of tribal history the Dhunds or Abbasis of Murree have the highest
stature in Punjab because they were the only ones to rebel against the Enflish
East India Company in 1857 apart from Kharrals of Jhamra led by the
indomitable Ahmad Khan Kharral.

But then Kharrals are Kharrals and few can match their fiercely Jaangli
independence.
I was particularly impressed by one Major Zohrab from 15 SP in August 1984 !
He was a member of a court of inquiry and supported me fearlessly ! He also
was my battery commander in 15 SP with whom I was attached from 09
August 1984 to mid october 1984 at Kharian and Qila Sobha Singh. Zohrab
was an Abbasi from the Abbasi clan of Murree and had some qualities of the
Abbasi rebels of 1857.

Zohrab was bitter about the manner in which the army dealt with its officers
welfare and was convinced that if anything happened to him his family would
be the loser and no one in the army will bother ! This is what happened to the
families of the Kargil soldiers .

A sad and disgraceful chapter of Pakistani military history ! Although the

architects of that disgraceful failure Musharraf , Aziz , Javed Hassan and
Masud Aslam did extremely well ! But war is hell ! And the only ones who
discover this are the families of those killed in action ! And they dont deliver
lectures in Harvard or Yale ! So the lies remain in circulation and the truth is
buried in obscure unknown rocky wilderness !

It was ironic to hear from NLI friends that some of the widows of the Kargil
war were literally forced to do follow most undignified courses in life ! But
who cares in this half dead state called Pakistan about to crash into total
oblivion !

In the Pakistan Army as one officer put it you have to be a general or dead to
get any benefits ! I would state that the widows of the Kargil soldiers from
ranks were even denied this privilege !

Saddique Satti was a great man ! Although few know him today !

May God Bless his soul !