Military Heroes

I had long wished to visit the tomb of Major Aziz Bhatti Shaheed, one of Pakistan’s bravest soldiers and one of the eleven recipients of the highest military award, the Nishan-e-Haider. Finally, the opportunity came on November 10, 2025. This was my sixth visit to the monument or tomb of a Nishan-e-Haider recipient. For the…

I was active in the area around Pakpattan on the 4th of October, 2025. Besides some other places, visiting the tomb of our national hero, Major Tufail Muhammad Shaheed, the third recipient of the highest military award of Pakistan, Nishan-e-Haider, was on the top of the list. However, time was short, and I had many…

The Victoria Cross (VC) is the highest military award given to a soldier for displaying extraordinary bravery and dedication to duty. In official words, it is awarded for: “…most conspicuous bravery, or some daring or pre-eminent act of valour or self-sacrifice, of extreme devotion to duty in the presence of the enemy…” It was named…

Thousands of sons of this land have sacrificed their lives to defend the honour and integrity of this country. Ten of them were awarded the Nishan-e-Haider and one of them the Hilal-e-Kashmir, the highest military awards of Pakistan and Azad Kashmir,  in recognition of their great courage, bravery, and supreme sacrifice. Two of them are…

While travelling on the Islamabad–Lahore Motorway (M-2), you may have seen a big board near the Balkasar Interchange, informing you about a man who, in the words written on the board, was “The First Muslim Recipient of the Victoria Cross.” The statement, though correct, is actually a bit misleading. He was not just the first…

Lance Naik Muhammad Mahfuz Shaheed is one of those ten great sons of this country who, in the line of duty and in defence of their country, showed extraordinary bravery and courage and were awarded the highest military award of the land, Nishan-e-Haider. Lance Naik Muhammad Mahfuz, s/o Meherban Khan, was born in 1944 in…

As I mentioned earlier in my post on Captain Raja Sarwar Shaheed, NH, the old Rawalpindi Division is home to five of the ten recipients of the Nishan-e-Haider. Even before the creation of Pakistan, this region was an important source of recruitment for the British Indian Army. Hundreds of thousands of men from this area…

December 14, 2016, was a lucky day for me, because on this day I visited the memorials of two of the ten recipients of the Nishan-e-Haider, the highest military award of Pakistan. After visiting the monument of Captain Raja Muhammad Sarwar Shaheed a couple of hours earlier, I reached Dhok Nishan-e-Haider, the village of Sowar…

Nishan-e-Haider is the highest military award of Pakistan, granted to honour those who display exceptional courage and make the supreme sacrifice of laying down their lives in defense of their country. So far, ten Pakistanis have received this great honour. It is interesting to note that at least seven out of these ten Nishan-e-Haider recipients…