During the war, he was cited for a live award of Nishan-e-Haider (the highest award for valour in the Pakistani Armed Forces);[citation needed] Malik's unit continued fighting even after Pakistani forces formally surrendered to Indian forces in Dhaka.[9] He was the Commander of the Pakistani Forces in the Battle of Hilli. He was the only red tape Pakistani officer who did not surrender even as his GOC 16 Division had surrendered. He had been taken from the battle field unconscious, and refused to undergo the surrender ceremony and it was his GOC, Major General Nazar Hussain Shah, who went through the surrender ceremony of 205 Brigade to the opposing commander Major General Lachhman Singh.[9] He became a well known war hero in West Pakistan.[citation needed]
War achievements
Malik was the commanding officer of the 3rd Baloch Regiment which had defended Lahore in the 1965 war. He was at the time a Lt Col and had destroyed the Batapur Bridge and defended a vital opening of the grand trunk road to save Lahore on 6 September 1965. A monument has been laid at the site and the day is celebrated in Pakistan as 'Defence Day' to remind the nation of General Tajammul's war efforts and those of the other vital commanding officers.
He was a brigadier during the 1971 Pakistan-India War at the Bangladesh scene. He had volunteered to go and fight while he was director of staff duties at the GHQ (General Headquarters), a coveted position. He took over command of 203 Infantry Brigade and defended Hilli while he was up against an Indian division and a brigade of Bengali insurgents on the then Pakistani soil next to the Indian border. Bogra was surrounded from all sides by the greater numbers of the Indian army and the Mukti Bahini. Brig. Malik (who retired as Maj. Gen.) continued to resist even after the Pakistani Eastern Command surrendered in Dhaka on 16 December. He, in his staff car with flags and stars uncovered, went around the streets of Bogra motivating his soldiers to keep fighting.
The Indian army had, by then, surrounded the city of Bogra. The brigade major (B.M.) along with some 50 other ranks surrendered but Malik, still full of vigour, refused to give up. He ordered the rest of his brigade to break out in small groups to Naogong, where one of his units was still fighting on. However, en route, his jeep was ambushed, severely injuring him and his orderly. Muktis captured both of them and subjected them to torture. They broke his arms and split his head, after which he was taken semi-conscious to an Indian Army hospital. Major General Nazar Hussain Shah was especially flown in from Natore for the surrender of this brigade on 18 December 1971, due to the refusal of Malik to surrender. Upon return from captivity, he was the only brigadier, who fought the 1971 War in East Pakistan to have been promoted to the rank of major general.[10]
Malik organized two coups, first of the two on June 26, 1977 (which was aborted later). In 1980, he organized yet another coup attempt against the military regime of Zia-ul-Haq, with many other senior army officers, including his son Naveed Tajammul.[2][3] The plan was to assassinate Zia-ul-Haq during the Pakistan Day parade on March 23, 1980.[2] However the plot was exposed and Malik, his son (Naveed Tajammal) and the other conspirators were arrested and sentenced to rigorous life imprisonment. Though offered chances of exile, even when the risk of being executed was high, General Malik and his son (Naveed Tajammal) never took the offer to be exiled and preferred their homeland.[4]
Later life
Malik was released from imprisonment in 1988 following the death of Zia-ul-Haq in a plane crash.[11] He published his autobiography, The Story Of My Struggle, in 1991.[6] He joined the field of politics, and twice contested elections for the National Assembly of Pakistan as an independent candidate from Chakwal district.[citation needed] He formed his own Islamic political party in 1977.[citation needed]
His two children Naveed Tajammal and Waseem Pasha Tajammal became politicians, and after retiring from politics entered the business world in the energy and defense sectors.[12]
^Syed Saleem Shahzad. "Purging Pakistan's jihadi legacy". Asia Times. ((cite web)): Missing or empty |url= (help)
^Abbas, Hassan (1 September 2004). Pakistan's Drift into Extremism: Allah, the Army, and America's War on Terror (1st ed.). Routledge. ISBN9780765614971.
British India 1946-47
Pakistan 1947-80
British Indian Army
Pakistan Army
Major General