Nishan-e-Haider (Urdu: نشان حیدر, translated as "Emblem of Haider, where Haider is the epithet of Hazrat Ali (A.S) and means Lion", abbreviated as NH), is the highest military award given by Pakistan. It is awarded to military personnel for extraordinary courage and valour beyond the call of duty in face of adversity in defence of the motherland. Its exclusivity may be gauged by the fact that in four Indo-Pak conflicts, only 10 Nishan-e-Haiders (and one equivalent) have been awarded.
Lalak Jan Shaahed (Urdu: لالک جان; w1967 – 7 July 1999) was born in Yasin, Ghizer District, in the Northern Areas, Pakistan. After school he joined the Pakistan Army, and reached the rank of Havaldar.
As a junior officer in the Northern Light Infantry, Jan fought against India in the Kargil War of 1999. He volunteered to be deployed on the front lines and drove back a number of attacks by the Indian army.Tiger Hill in the Kargil Sector had been occupied by ~130 men of 12 NLI (Northern Light Infantry) unit of the Pakistan Army. One of these men was Subedar Sikander, the person who was responsible, with ~130 other men, to hold back India's offensive long enough to force the Division at Siachen to retreat. His 2IC (Second in Command) was Havaldar Major Lalak Jan.The ~130 men of 12 NLI were told by Subedar Sikander to change their positions while firing back at the attacking Indian forces. As the men followed the orders, they managed to bluff the Indians into believing that the size of the force was much more than ~100.
On 1st of July, 1999, the 18 Grenadiers Battalion (India) launched a fierce attack on Tiger Hill by virtue of artillery shelling of the occupied bunkers. Subedar Sikandar placed his men in such positions that they managed to repulse the attack without any loss of life on their own part. It is not known how many men were lost by the 18 Grenadiers Battalion.
On the morning of 2 July 1999, amidst the mist, the 18 Grenadiers launched another attack on Tiger Hills. Subedar Sikandar ordered his men to retreat to a secret bunker. Once the men were safe, he ordered Lalak Jan to descend Tiger Hill, and amidst the Indian Artillery shelling plant the landmines in the area in front of the Indians. The impossibility of the task was realized by all, but the Subedar insisted that the army has sent them down to fight, and that they would have to complete this task if they were to make a dent in the Indian offensive. Planting the landmines was the only way for them to damage the Indian armor and artillery, as none of the 130 men of 12 NLI had any heavy weaponry except(RPG-7) . The Subedar insisted that the mist would help Lalak Jan as well, and the Indians would not be expecting it either.
Accepting the daunting task, Lalak Jan descended Tiger Hills amidst the mist. The remaining men gave him as fierce a cover as possible to distract the Indians. Lalak Jan used his natural mountaineering ability to the fullest in the snow clad area and planted the landmines in such a manner that the Indians would encounter them in case they tried to move forward towards the hill.
Lalak Jan returned, having successfully planted the mines as ordered.
The trap was now set. All that the men required to do now was to lure the Indians into it. Subedar Sikandar told his men to gradually reduce the firing to a standstill.
About two hours after firing ceased from the Pakistan side, the Indians thought that they had managed to clear the area of the insurgents. Hence they began to move forward. The landmines wrought havoc with their initial forward movements. The Indians suffered heavy casualties, however, as they have not publicized this incident, the exact amount of damage is not known. The damage was in any case, severe enough that 18 Grenadiers did not attack Tiger Hills for at least 3 to 4 more days, until they were supported by another Indian Unit, eight Sikh.
On 6 July, both 18 Grenadiers and eight Sikh attacked Tiger Hills in the fiercest of Tiger Hill battles or the Kargil Operation. Some of the Indian soldiers launched an attack from the very high steeper side of the hill. The NLI was not expecting an attack from this side. The NLI fought this battle at a heavy cost. 80 of the ~130 men were killed, including Subedar Sikander. The Indians had managed to destroy a number of the Tiger Hill bunkers by either a hand to hand fight or by dropping a grenade into it.
Only Lalak Jan and three other men remained. The onslaught of the Indians was continuing and they were rapidly advancing towards capturing the hill. Lalak Jan, who was now the senior most person around, placed his men in strategic positions, at least two to three per person, and told them to fire without staying in one position. These four men, pitted against an enemy much superior in number and weaponry, managed to repulse the Indian onslaught by sheer courage and determination.
On 7 July 1999, 18 Grenadiers and eight Sikh launched yet another offensive. This was a successful attack. Two of Lalak Jan's men were killed. Lalak Jan and his only other remaining comrade in arms, Bakhmal Jan were both seriously injured. Not giving up, Lalak Jan got hold of an LMG and while Bakhmal Jan provided him with the ammunition, the two men kept trying to repulse the Indian attack. Lalak Jan's left arm had been rendered useless as he had received a bullet in it. Bakhmal Jan, unable to sustain his injuries, died while supplying the ammunition to Lalak Jan.
From there on, in one of the most stunning demonstrations of determination, Lalak Jan held up the two units of the Indian Army for four complete hours. The Indian offensive finally slowed down and they descended Tiger Hills. The reason for this is not known, perhaps they thought that they could shell the bunker in which Lalak Jan was positioned.
After the Indian offensive had subsided, reinforcements (50 to 60 men) were sent to Tiger Hill under Captain Amer. When he saw the condition of Lalak Jan he told him to go back to the base camp as his arm was in no condition to be used. Lalak Jan told the captain that he did not want to die on a hospital bed, but would rather die in the battlefield. He told his Captain that he should not worry about the arm.
While this was going on at the hill, the Indians started shelling from a secret bunker in an adjacent hill. By that time the command of the handful of troops at Tiger Hill had been taken up by Captain Amer. He realized that the fire was coming from a secret bunker and also directed fire towards it, but the effort was in vain. The exact reason for the failure of this fire by the Pakistanis is not known. It could have been because of one of three reasons 1) The secret bunker was very well designed and protected by the Indians 2) the fire was not directed properly or 3) the bunker was not in the range of the light weaponry possessed by the Pakistanis atop Tiger Hill.
There was only one way left to counter the secret Indian bunker; it had to be blown up from a closer range.
When the injured Lalak Jan volunteered for the mission, his plea was immediately rejected by the captain, who was of the opinion that he would do it himself. However, Lalak Jan persuaded him, giving him his previous landmine installation experience coupled with his mountaineering skills as the explanation.
The Captain agreed.
Lalak Jan put a bag of explosives on his back, and while shouldering an AK-47 descended Tiger Hills for the second time amidst heavy Indian shelling. Managing to avoid being seen by the Indian forces, and utilising his knowledge of the hills to take cover, he located the secret bunker and threw the explosives inside the bunker.
The bunker, which was also an ammunition dump, blew up in what was probably the biggest blast of the entire Kargil Operation. Lalak Jan managed to take cover, but the Indian Army lost 19 to 20 men inside and nearby the bunker. The other Indian soldiers saw Lalak Jan and opened fire on him. Surrounded from all sides by Indian fire, Lalak Jan tried to resist and returned fire.
He sustained serious injuries as a result of heavy mortar shelling, but managed to defend his position and frustrate the Indian attack before dying at his post.
On 15th of September 1999, the commanding officer of 12 NLI sent two commando forces to Tiger Hills to recover the body of Lalak Jan. The two forces were called 'Ababeel' and 'Uqaab'. Ababeel provided the fire cover while Uqaab went into the destroyed enemy bunker to retrieve the body of Lalak Jan. When his body was found, Lalak Jan had his AK-47 clinched to his chest.
Pakistan awarded him the Nishan-i-Haider, Pakistan’s highest military award, for extraordinary gallantry. Since Pakistan's creation, only ten soldiers in all have received this honour. Jan was the first person from the Northern Areas of Pakistan and the only Ismaili to receive the award.
Pakistan Army's official statement is as follows;
Captain Karnal Sher had a citation posted by the Indian Army too for his exceptionally courageous defense[2] and counter attack on tiger hill.
At the time of India-Pakistan War of 1971, Lance Naik Muhammad Mahfuz was serving in Company “A” of 15 Punjab Regiment deployed on the Wagah-Attari Sector. On the night of December 17-18, his company was assigned the task of occupying Phul Kanjri village located in the same sector. Lance Naik Muhammad Mahfuz was assigned to Platoon No. 3, which was designated as the forward unit in the assault. Thus this Platoon had to face torrential volleys of enemy fire from concrete Pill boxes. When the entire Company “A” was about 70 yards from the Indian position, it was pinned down by an unceasing frontal and cross fire from automatic weapons. On top of that the enemy artillery also opened up its fire with the break of dawn. Mahfuz, whose machine-gun was destroyed by an enemy shell, ran towards the Indian line. Through luck, he got through the Indian ranks and was able to take out the machine gun. He was subsequently killed by enemy fire.
For his supreme courage, Lance Naik Muhammad Mafuz Shaheed was awarded Nishan-i-Haider, the highest Military award of Pakistan.
At the time of 1971 war (between India and Pakistan) he was attached with an old army unit known as “20 Lancers”. While his unit was engaged in the frontline area of Zafarwal-Shakargarh, he himself never missed an opportunity of taking over a machine-gun and firing on the enemy, unmindful of any danger[citation needed]. It was on December 5, 1971 that while braving intense shelling and direct fire from enemy tanks and infantry, he went from trench to trench delivering ammunition to the frontline soldiers[citation needed]. It was documented by his company men that on the following day, he went out with four fighting patrols and undertook most hazardous missions. However, it was on December 10, 1971 that he spotted the enemy digging in near village Harar Khurd along the minefield laid out by Pakistan Army. He thus immediately informed the second- in-command of his unit. But simultaneously he moved, on his own initiative, from one anti-tank gun to another directing the crew to fire accurately at enemy tanks, and was thus responsible for the destruction of sixteen enemy tanks.
On the same day, at 04:00 pm, while directing fire from one of the recoilless rifles, he was hit on the chest by a burst of machine-gun fire from an enemy tank and thus died in action.
Sawar Muhammad Hussain had the distinction of being the first Jawan (a rank of foot soldier in Pakistan Army) to be awarded Nishan-e-Haider for his gallantry
To attain his objective, Major Sharif had to go through an enemy minefield and swim across a 30-feet wide and 10 feet deep defensive canal, which he accomplished under heavy artillery and automatic fire. Leading his company, he launched a frontal attack and succeeded in driving the enemy out of its fortified trenches by dusk on December 3. A total of 43 enemy soldiers were killed in this well-nigh superhuman action, and another 28 were taken prisoners. Moreover, four enemy tanks were also destroyed.
Muhammad Sarwar (1910–27 July 1948) (Urdu: محمد سرور) was in born Singhori village, Tehsil Gujar Khan, District of Rawalpindi, Punjab, Pakistan. Muhammad Sarwar[2] was a captain in the newly formed Pakistani Army. Commissioned: 1944, Punjab Regiment. In 1947, he voluntered to take part in the battalion organised by the Pakistani Army that entered Kashmir on the order of the then Governor-General Muhammad Ali Jinnah with the object of besting and chasing away the Indian Army which had invaded Kashmir after the Kashmiri people voted unanimously in favor of joining Pakistan. His regiment managed to outflank the unorganized indian troops and forced them to retreat out of the parts which are now known as Northern Areas in one of the battles of the First Kashmir War. He was killed by machine gun fire when advancing forward through a barbed wire barricade. He was awarded the Nishan-E-Haider for his bravery and valour[3][4].
During the Kashmir Operations soon after the birth of Pakistan, as Company Commander[5] of the 2nd Battalion of the Punjab Regiment, Captain Sarwar filled with the spirit of Jihad launched an attack causing heavy casualties against a strongly fortified enemy position in the Uri Sector under heavy machine gun, grenade and mortar fire. But on 27 July 1948, as he moved forward with six of his men to cut their way through a barbed wire barrier, he died when his chest was riddled by a burst of heavy machine gun fire.
There is a college named after him, Sarwar Shaheed College.
