Ishfakul Majid

Muhammed Ishfakul Majid (17 March 1903 — 31 March 1976) was the first Bengali general in the Pakistan Army and the senior most Pakistani Bengali officer at the time of the Partition of India.

Early life and education Majid was born on 17 March 1903 in Jorhat, Assam, British India, to Abdul Majid, the first Muslim who served as a justice in the Bengal High Court. He completed his undergraduate degree at Cotton College, Guwahati. On 2 February 1922, he joined the Royal Military College, Sandhurst. He was the first graduate from Sandhurst in modern Bangladesh. He became the GOC of the 9th Infantry Division of the Pakistan Army. Majid was senior in rank to Ayub Khan, but Ayub Khan became the Commander-in-Chief of the Pakistan Army, bypassing him, due to the lobbying of Iskander Mirza. Majid was named in the Rawalpindi conspiracy, but he was later proved innocent.

Majid returned to East Pakistan in 1962.

Bangladesh Liberation War He and Colonel M. A. G. Osmani met Sheikh Mujibur Rahman in March 1971 on behalf of retired Bengali soldiers and showed their loyalty towards an independent Bangladesh. Majid was later arrested in July 1971. The army authorities intensely pressured him to give a statement against Sheikh Mujib denouncing him as a traitor, which he steadfastly refused to comply with. He was later sent to Dhaka Central Jail, where he was held in isolation and finally released in August 1971.

Personal life Majid married three times. In 1935, Majid married Ayesha Rahim, the youngest daughter of Justice Sir Abdur Rahim of Midnapore, Bengal. Ayesha's eldest sister Niaz Fatima was married to Huseyn Shaheed Suhrawardy. After Ayesha's death in 1941, Majid married Zohra Raza, the sister-in-law of Raja Syed Mohammad Sa'adat Ali Khan of Nanpara State in Bahraich (now in Uttar Pradesh). The marriage ended in a divorce in the late 1950s. After moving to East Pakistan, he married Begum Marium Ladli in 1961. The couple adopted a daughter.

Death Majid died on 31 March 1976 in Combined Military Hospital, Dhaka. He was buried at Azimpur Graveyard with full military honours.