Was Pakistan's first PM assassinated over Kashmir?

"Baraadaraan-e-Millat..." Pakistan's first Prime Minister, Liaquat Ali Khan, had just uttered the two words (meaning brothers of the nation), when two bullets struck him at a public gathering in Rawalpindi's Company Bagh on October 16, 1951.Seconds after the bullets hit Liaquat Ali Khan, the Afghan shooter, Said Akbar, was shot dead by police. Akbar had used a German-made 9mm Walther P38 pistol, which he purchased from a mujahid who had come back from Kashmir. Akbar's death deprived the police of the chance to question him about his motive.Among the prime motives, that emerged from decades of probe, was the killer's resentment over Liaquat's handling of the Kashmir ceasefire after the 1947-48 India-Pakistan war. The ceasefire came into effect on January 1, 1949, almost three years before the assassination.But was Kashmir really the reason Pakistan's first prime minister was murdered, or was the Afghan gunman part of a larger conspiracy? Or, did Said Akbar resent Liaquat's lifestyle and his wife Ra'ana's refusal to observe purdah? October 16, 2026, marks 75 years of Liaquat's assassination, a murder that remains unresolved in its motive and possible involvement of other elements. The anniversary revives the questions about the killing, particularly after Said Akbar's son published his own investigation in 2025.Liaquat's killing was the first in Pakistan's troubled history of political violence. Former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto was assassinated in 2007, outside the same Rawalpindi park, now known as Liaquat Bagh. And, the mystery of her murder is still disputed. President General Zia-ul-Haq died in a mysterious plane crash in 1988, while former Prime Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto was executed on April 4, 1979, following a controversial murder trial. To understand Liaquat's assassination, one must return to the years immediately following Partition in August 1947. India and Pakistan fought their first war over Jammu and Kashmir in 1947-48, before a UN-mediated ceasefire took effect on January 1, 1949. The fighting stopped, but the dispute continued, and sections of Pakistan's military and tribal muhajid who had infiltrated Kashmir, were dissatisfied with the ceasefire.Liaquat Ali Khan was the same Pakistani prime minister who signed the Nehru-Liaquat Pact with Indian Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru in 1950, to protect the rights of minorities in both countries following Partition.THE TWO BULLETS THAT KILLED PAKISTAN'S FIRST PMOn October 16, 1951, Liaquat arrived at Company Bagh in Rawalpindi to address a Muslim League gathering. At approximately 4 pm, Said Akbar, seated near the dais, fired two shots from a 9mm semi-automatic pistol.According to 'The Assassination of Liaquat Ali Khan: 1947-1952', written by assassin Said Akbar's son Farooq Babrakzai, that afternoon in Rawalpindi park, the Deputy Superintendent of Police Khan Najaf Khan shouted in Pashto, "Who fired the shots? Shoot [him]!"Police Inspector Mohammad Shah then fired six shots at Said Akbar from close range, five of which struck him, while Muslim League members reportedly stabbed the wounded assassin with spears. Babrakzai questioned why the gunman was killed instead of being captured alive and interrogated about his motive and possible accomplices.Liaquat Ali Khan was rushed to the Combined Military Hospital in Rawalpindi, where he succumbed to his injuries. He was 56.The shooting was over in seconds, but the mystery surrounding Liaquat's assassination would haunt Pakistan for decades.WHO WAS THE AFGHAN ASSASSIN?Said Akbar belonged to the Zadran tribe of present-day Afghanistan's Khost region. He and his brother Mazrak Zadran had opposed the Afghan monarchy under King Mohammad Zahir Shah before surrendering to British authorities in North Waziristan in January 1947.After Partition in 1947, Said Akbar settled in Abbottabad, where Pakistani authorities continued paying him a monthly allowance inherited from the British administration. The payment was intended to support him in exile after he and his brother had rebelled against Afghanistan's monarchy and sought refuge in British India.According to a 2015 Dawn report, Said Akbar was seated in an area reserved for Criminal Investigation Department (CID) officers at the Rawalpindi gathering. This raised questions about how the assassin had gained access to a security-designated section so close to the PM Liaquat Ali Khan.How he secured that position is an important question. His 11-year-old son, Dilawar Khan, had accompanied him to the meeting and witnessed the chaos following the shooting, Dawn reported.DID KASHMIR'S CEASEFIRE TRIGGER THE ASSASSINATION?The Kashmir connection emerged during the official investigation into Liaquat Ali Khan's assassination, as investigators examined whether resentment over his handling of the 1947-48 war with India had motivated the Afghan gunman.On October 27, 1947, the Indian Army landed in Srinagar following Maharaja Hari Singh's accession to India. Pakistan-backed mujahideen had already entered Kashmir, beginning a war that continued until the January 1949 ceasefire.The cessation of fighting disappointed several Pakistani military officers and lashkar who had waged the war, and wanted to advance further. The inquiry examined whether Said Akbar had killed Liaquat because of resentment over Kashmir.According to Farooq Babrakzai, Said Akbar had in the summer of 1951 offered to raise, finance and lead a tribal lashkar, or armed force, into Kashmir, where fighting between India and Pakistan had ended with a ceasefire. It raised questions if the Afghans in exile had become involved with groups dissatisfied with Pakistan's decision to halt the military campaign. However, the commission investigating Liaquat Ali Khan's assassination dismissed the purported offer as a "hoax" and did not establish it as a motive for the murder.Babrakzai alleged that men angered by the Kashmir ceasefire subsequently influenced Said Akbar and persuaded him to assassinate the prime minister. His account suggests a possible connection between the unresolved Kashmir conflict and the October 16, 1951, killing.Interestingly, Liaquat's own speeches complicate the picture. According to 'Pakistan: The Heart of Asia', published by Harvard University Press in 1950, Liaquat advocated resolving disputes through peaceful means while maintaining Pakistan's claim over Kashmir."Pakistan is prepared at all times to submit all disputes to negotiation, mediation and arbitration... Although we are confident which way the people of Kashmir, 80% of whom are Muslims, will vote, we will abide by whatever the democratic verdict may be," he said in a speech in New York.THE FAILED COUP BEFORE LIAQUAT'S MURDERMonths before Liaquat Ali Khan's assassination, Pakistan had uncovered its first attempted military coup, with the Kashmir dispute at its centre.Major General Akbar Khan, who had commanded Pakistani forces during the 1947-48 war, believed the government had made a mistake by accepting the January 1949 ceasefire with India.On February 23, 1951, he allegedly discussed plans to overthrow Liaquat's government at a meeting attended by military officers and left-wing intellectuals. The plot was exposed after information reached the authorities through an insider. On March 9, Liaquat announced the arrests of Akbar Khan, Brigadier MA Latif, poet Faiz Ahmed Faiz and others, accusing them of attempting to subvert the armed forces.A special tribunal began their trial on June 15, 1951. Exactly four months later, Liaquat was assassinated in Rawalpindi. Farooq Babrakzai, in an account published by Dawn, suggested a possible connection between the failed coup and Liaquat's assassination.THE INVESTIGATION THAT FAILED TO FIND A MOTIVEOn October 25, 1951, Pakistan appointed an enquiry commission headed by Federal Court Justice Mohammad Munir, assisted by Punjab Financial Commissioner Akhtar Hussein, to investigate the circumstances surrounding Liaquat Ali Khan's assassination, examine security lapses and determine whether the Afghan gunman had acted alone or as part of a wider conspiracy.They examined 66 witnesses across 38 sessions, including 23 in Lahore and 15 in Rawalpindi, before submitting its report in February 1952. According to Farooq Babrakzai's account published in Dawn, 73 names, clauses and sentences were omitted from the final report, mostly for security reasons. The omissions raise questions about the transparency of the investigation.Investigators examined three possible motives. They considered whether Said Akbar had acted irrationally, resented Liaquat's Kashmir policy, or objected to his lifestyle and wife Ra'ana's refusal to observe purdah. None was established. The commission also found inconsistencies in police testimony, while Inspector Mohammad Shah, who killed the assassin, was not questioned, according to the Pakistan government's 1952 Commission of Enquiry report.The investigation became even more controversial after Inspector General of Punjab's Special Police Nawabzada Aitzazuddin died in a plane crash in August 1952, with important police records reportedly lost in the accident. However, those same records were later made available to Scotland Yard investigator Cecil Edwin U'ren, who examined the case in 1954-55 and concluded that Said Akbar had acted alone.Liaquat's widow, Ra'ana, was unconvinced, and decades later, his son Babrakzai also questioned the findings. He alleged that investigators had failed to properly examine the possibility of other people being involved in the murder of Pakistan's first prime minister.Exactly 75 years after Liaquat began the address with "Baraadaraan-e-Millat", Pakistan still knows who fired the bullets, but not why he did so or whether anyone else was behind the killing. The Afghan gunman died within moments of pulling the trigger. He leaves behind a mystery in which Kashmir is a possible motive, but never a proven one.- Ends