Captain Raja Muhammad Sarwar Bhatti ( ; 10 November 1910 – 27 July 1948) , best known as Muhammad Sarwar, was an officer in the Pakistan Army who was cited as the first recipient of Pakistan’s highest military award, Nishan-i-Haider, for his gallantry and actions of valor during the First Indo-Pakistani War of 1947–48.
Biography
Raja Muhammad Sarwar Bhatti was born to a Punjabi Muslim Rajput family in a small village, Singhori, that was located in the vicinity of the Gujar Khan Tehsil, Rawalpindi District, Punjab, British India in British Indian Empire on 10 November 1910. He was a military brat whose father, Raja Muhammad Hayat Khan Bhatti, was an enlist in the British Indian Army, retiring at rank of Havildar.
He was educated in government-run schools in Rawalpindi District and secured his matriculation from a local school in Faisalabad in 1928. After graduation, he followed his father, Havildar Muhammad Hyatt, path and enlisted in the British Indian Army in 1929 as a Sepoy, where he was posted with the 2nd Battalion of the 10th Baloch Regiment (2/10th Baloch Regiment) of the Baloch Regiment (present 7th Battalion The Baloch Regiment (Steadfast Battalion)). From 1929 until 1939, he worked hard towards reacting the one of the highest enlisted ranks and was eventually promoted as the Naib Subedar and posted in supply and ammunition with the Pakistan Army Service Corps in 1939.
In 1939, Sarwar was invited to attend the Indian Military Academy in Dehradun and completed his military training before gaining commission in the 2nd Battalion of the 1st Punjab Regiment (2/1st Punjab Regiment) of the British Indian Army in 1943. In 1944, 2nd-Lt. Sarwar briefly served in the Burma, serving with distinction in the military operations in 1944–45 that earned him the Burma Star by the British administrations in Delhi in India.
In 1944, 2nd-Lt. Sarwar was posted in an administrative position in the Punjab Regiment — he was promoted as Lieutenant in 1945–46. In the British Indian Army personnel accounts, Lt. Sarwar was known to be "a serious man with no nonsense and deeply religious who would practice his religion, Islam, devotedly and offered five prayers everyday, first offering the prayer before sunrise and concluding with the very last midnight prayer."
In 1946–47, Lt. Sarwar was promoted as army captain and decided to attend the signal course before Capt. Sarwar was recommissioned in the Pakistan Army Corps of Signals in 1947, and directed towards attending the Military College of Signals. After hearing the news of the first war between India and Pakistan over Jammu and Kashmir, Capt. Sarwar immediately wanted volunteered but refrained due to his officers wanted him to complete his schooling on the military signals, which he completed after a year. In 1948, Capt. Sarwar took over the command of the 2nd Battalion of the Punjab Regiment of the Pakistan Army as its commanding officer and was deployed on frontline.
A march towards the Uri town of the Jammu and Kashmir was commenced under Capt. Sarwar, and led an attack on the organized Indian Army's troops, forcing them to retreat from the Gilgit-Baltistan to Ladakh on 26 July 1948. Capt. Sarwar's company followed the retreated Indian Army's troops to the Uri region where his unit faced off the strongly fortified enemy position located in the Uri sector. His company was only 50 yards away from the fortified enemy position as the Indian Army's soldiers begin their mortar shelling at his positions, and received instructions on leading the attack on the left side of the bunker where the shelling was taking place. Moving towards the new position, his passage was blocked due to the barbed wires and decided to move to cut the wires with only taking six men alongside. During the firefight, Capt. Sarwar used the bolt cutter to cut their barbed wires and due to the downpour of shelling, taking a bullet with a machine gun fire.
On 27 July 1948, Capt. Sarwar was killed while clearing the passage– he was 38 years old at the time of his death.
Family background and personal life
Muhammad Sarwar's father, Raja Muhammad Hayat Khan, had served in the British Indian Army and was decorated with the British war medal for his services in the World War I– Muhammad Hayat retired as a Havildar Sergeant and died on 23 November 1932. Muhammad Sarwar had three brothers and one sister. Raja Muhammad Sarwar married in arranged marriage in 1936 and had a son and a daughter from that marriage.