General Khalid Mahmud Arif ( 29 December 1930 – 6 March 2020) popularly known as K.M. Arif, was a senior officer of the Pakistan Army, serving as the vice-chief of army staff under President Zia-ul-Haq, who retained the command of the army since 1976.
His career in the army was mostly spent in the military intelligence, and served in the East Pakistan Rifles, briefly fighting in the civil war aided by neighboring India. Upon repatriation to Pakistan in 1973, he continued with his military service in the army and eventually ascended as director-general of military intelligence before assuming the staff appointment at the Army GHQ. Appointed as vice-chief of army staff in 1984, he played crucial role in stabilizing the administration of President Zia-ul-Haq, and was succeeded by General Mirza Aslam Beg as army chief in March 1987.
Upon his retirement in 1987, he authored several books on the political and military history of Pakistan, of which Working With Zia: Pakistan's Power Politics is the best known.
Biography
Khalid Mahmud Arif was born on 29 December 1930 in a Kakazai family in East Punjab, India and immigrated to Pakistan following the partition. He attended Edwardes College in Peshawar and graduated in 1947.
After passing the ISSB's examinations, he joined the Pakistan Military Academy in Kakul as a cadet and graduated in 1947, where he was selected to do advance training on Infantry tactics in Kohat, North-West Frontier Province. His family permanently moved in Kohat as he gained commissioned into the Armoured Corps. In 1952, he was selected for further military training in the United States and was sent to attend the United States Army Armor School at Fort Knox, where he graduated in specializing in the armoured tactics. He was further educated in Military College of Signals in Rawalpindi where he excelled in intelligence management, and graduated in the staff course degree from the Command and Staff College in Quetta, Balochistan, Pakistan.
War appointments and in East Pakistan
In 1965, Arif, as a captain, served in the armoured corps along with then-Major Zia-ul-Haq and participated in the second war with India over the disputed Kashmir. Arif commanded an American M48 tank against the Indian Army.
After the war, he was sent back to the military intelligence and stationed in East Pakistan (in the East Pakistan Rifles).
In 1967, he greatly aided towards troop redeployment of the Eastern Command in formulating a battle plan, codename: "Operation X-Sunderbans-1." The deployment, however, was non combative and it was only designed to form the basis for the operational combat plan. In 1969, he was posted in Dhaka as a martial law officer under the Government of East Pakistan led by Governor Vice Admiral Syed Mohammad Ahsan in 1969. During this stint, Arif reportedly relied a secretive message in his complied report in regards to the situation in East that ultimately warned off the consequences of the civil war. In March 1971, he witnessed the meeting with President Yahya Khan who decided the launch of the military operations against the rebels in the East should take place. Arif took over the situation himself to control the law and order.
About this meeting, Arif described the meeting as: President Yahya took matters in his hands, thus good bye to civil bureaucracy. In East, he fought and led companies to fight the approaching Indian Army, and was captured by the Indian Army units who held him as war prisoner after the instrument of surrender was signed between Lieutenant General A.A.K. Niazi and Lieutenant General Jagjit Singh Aurora, GOC-in-C of Eastern Command of Indian military in 1971.
Command and staff appointments
His efforts and actions in the liberation war in East that accounted his bravery had earned admiration in Pakistan which led to Prime Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto accepting recommendations to decorate Major Arif with service award, Sitara-e-Basalat. In 1975, he was repatriated to Pakistan from the Wagha and was allowed to resume his military service, being promoted as Lieutenant-Colonel. He testified in the War Enquiry Commission led by Chief Justice Hamoodur Rahman, giving accounts of military intelligence failures took place in East.
In 1976, he was promoted as Colonel and Brigadier in 1977, of which, he assumed the command of the 111th Brigade stationed in Islamabad; this command appointment lasted only eight months.