Mian Ghulam Jilani

Major General Mian Ghulam Jilani (SQA, Imtiazi Sanad) (1914 - March 1, 2004) was a 2 star rank general officer in the Pakistan Army who, as British Army officer, was a World War II Japanese POW camp survivor at Singapore, who subsequently rose to help negotiate Pakistan’s membership in the Baghdad Pact and the Southeast Asia Treaty Organization. An ethnic Pashtun, he retired from the Pakistan Army in 1962 and was jailed 1973 for his political beliefs. Amnesty International declared him a prisoner of conscience in 1974. He escaped from custody and took political asylum in the United States in 1975.

Early life

Jilani was born in Sibi, Balochistan, when the British ruled the Indian subcontinent. He was educated at Forman Christian College in Lahore and later finished Law at Aligarh University in India. He completed his officer’s training at the Prince of Wales Royal Indian Military College (RIMC) in Dehra Dun in India and was commissioned as second lieutenant in the Royal Scots Regiment by King Edward VIII in 1936 and later transferred to the 19th Hyderabad Kumaon Regiment in the British Indian Army.

Captured at Singapore

During the Second World War he was transferred to Singapore with the British Indian Army and was captured and taken prisoner by the Japanese in 1942. He was a prisoner of war for nearly forty months. He was tortured and kept in solitary confinement for seven months during this period.

Shortly after World War II, the movement for independence from the...
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