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(28 August 1943 - 16 August 2015)
on august 16, 2015, Punjab Home Minister colonel ® Shuja Khanzada was killed in a suicide attack in his hometown of Shadi Khan in attock. He belonged to a military family and several family members served in the British Indian army and junior civil service; his grandfather Subedar Major and Honorary captain ajaib Khan had served in the British Indian army. ajaib Khan was Subedar Major of 76th Punjabis (later 3rd Battalion of 1st Punjab regiment and now 3rd Punjab regiment of Pakistan army). He was with his battalion during the first World War in Mesopotamia and won Indian order of Merit (IoM) in an action. on May 15, 1915, ajab stormed a fort in Khafajiyah with six other soldiers where his orderly Sepoy Burhan ali was killed in action and awarded posthumous IoM. ajaib retired after a long service and was awarded oBe and oBI.
ajaib's one brother served in the Indian Medical Service while three other brothers served in civil service in Hong Kong. Hashim Khan spent his whole career in post office department, Sardar Khan was chief clerk of harbor office and Khawas Khan was clerk at the Supreme court. Shuja's uncle captain ® Taj Muhammad Khanzada was one of the most decorated officer of Indian army.
Taj Muhammad Khanzada was Shuja's uncle. In 1926, Taj joined the royal Indian Military college at Dehra Dun and after completion of his education he was selected for Indian Military academy Dehra Dun. He was among one of the early batches of Indian officers trained at Dehra Dun. after completion of training, he was commissioned with army number of Ic-53. He joined 5th Battalion Duke of connaught's own 11th Sikh regiment (now 5 Sikh regiment of Indian army). His battalion mates included Harbakhash Singh (later lieutenant General), Khanolkar, ajaib Singh, ranjit rai (later lieutenant colonel), allahdad Khan, Hamid Hussain (later Brigadier), Muzaffar Khan, nausherwan Khan, Hassan and Khushalpal Singh. Taj won the Military cross (Mc) in 1939 in Waziristan and DSo and Bar in 1941 in the Burma theatre. During Japanese captivity, he joined Indian national army (Ina) and was put in charge of special service group. However, his role in Ina is not clear. after...