Muhammad Akram

Major Muhammad Akram (Urdu: محمد اکرم; c. 4 April 1938 – 5 December 1971) NH, was a military officer in the Pakistan Army who was cited with the Nishan-e-Haider posthumously after the military confrontation took place in railway station in Hilli, East-Pakistan.

Muhammad Akram was born in Dinga but later moved to Nakka Kalan, a small village in Gujrat District, in Punjab, India, on 4 April 1938. He was a military brat whose his father, Malik S. Muhammad, was an enlisted personnel in the Indian Army who later retired as a Havildar–an army sergeant– in the Pakistan Army. After securing his graduation from a local middle school in Nakka Kalan, Akram entered to join the Military College Jhelum– an ROTC and an army's OCS in Jhelum, Punjab.

In 1953, he dropped out from the Military College Jhelum due to his father's deployment, and had to take the High School equivalency exam where he took examinations in geography and intermediate education. In 1956, he enlisted in the Pakistan Army and posted with the 8th Punjab Regiment as a Pvt. near the border with India.

In 1959, Pvt. Akram was invited to attend the Pakistan Military Academy but only spent a semester after being deployed in East-Pakistan as a Corporal. He received commission in the Army through his years of attendance at the army's OCS in Jhelum in 1961, and was attached to the East Pakistan Rifles as a military advisor in 1963 till 1965. In 1965, Capt. Akram was stationed in different parts of the West-Pakistan before being deployed in East-Pakistan as a quartermaster with the Frontier Force Regiment till 1967–68.

Major Akram Shaheed Memorial

In 1968–70, Maj. Akram served with the 4th battalion posted with the Frontier Force Regiment, eventually becoming its commanding officer by 1971.

During the east Pakistan War of 1971, the 4th FF Regiment, which at that time was commanded by then Col. Muhammad Mumtaz Malik, was placed in the forward area of the Hilli Municipality (under Hakimpur Upozila, Dinajpur District), in what was then East Pakistan. The regiment came under continuous and heavy air, artillery and armour attacks from the Indian Army. Despite enemy superiority in both numbers and firepower, Akram and his men repulsed many attacks, inflicting heavy casualties on the enemy. He embraced martyrdom in the attack and was posthumously awarded the Nishan-e-Haider, Pakistan's highest military honour.

He was buried in the village of Boaldar, Thana/Upozila-Hakimpur (Banglahilly), District-Dinajpur. There is a monument, Major Akram Shaheed Memorial, in the midst of Jhelum city.