Retired Lt Gen Nauman Mahmood will head the General Secretariat of the Makkah Joint Defence Agreement as Pakistan takes a key role in the alliance.
ISLAMABAD/LAHORE: Lieutenant General (Retd) Nauman Mahmood has been appointed the first Secretary General of the Makkah Joint Defence Agreement, with the alliance’s General Secretariat being established in Riyadh, according to Pakistan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
The appointment places the retired Pakistani general at the center of the emerging defence framework and also connects the new role with a notable chapter in Pakistan’s military history. Nauman Mahmood is the son of Lieutenant Colonel Raja Sultan Mahmood, a commander of 32 Baloch who was killed during the 1971 war in former East Pakistan.
According to an account published by Pakistan’s Army Institute of Military History, Lt Col Sultan Mahmood was commanding 32 Baloch in the Pirganj area on Dec. 7, 1971, when his formation was informed that Major General Nazar Hussain Shah, the commander of 16 Division, had been ambushed and was believed to have been abducted. Sultan Mahmood moved with the leading company toward the reported location.
The account says the Pakistani troops subsequently encountered Indian forces. During the fighting, Sultan Mahmood led his men in a close-quarter assault. The Army Institute of Military History records that he entered an Indian trench and engaged Capt. Jatandar Nath Sood of 2/5 Gorkha Rifles in hand-to-hand combat. Sultan Mahmood was killed during the encounter, while Sood later died of his wounds, according to the account.
Indian press accounts also documented the episode. The Army Institute of Military History quotes The Hindu as reporting that Sultan Mahmood’s identity was established from documents and blood-stained epaulettes after his death. The account says a Gorkha junior commissioned officer placed his rank badges in the grave during the burial.
A separate historical account reproducing the Indian press material says Sultan Mahmood was later referred to as the “Sultan of lieutenant colonels.” These accounts describe the close-range fighting and the recognition given to the Pakistani officer by Indian soldiers.
The Army Institute of Military History also says Sultan Mahmood’s battlefield record was documented by Indian military officers, including Brig. Joginder Singh Bakshi and Maj. Gen. Lachhman Singh Lehl in Indian Sword Strikes in East Pakistan. It further records that an Indian Army officer, Maj. (Retd) Itebar Singh, wrote to Nauman Mahmood in 2012 recalling his father’s courage and saying he had been buried with full military honours at Pirganj.
Nauman Mahmood was commissioned into the Pakistan Army on Sept. 11, 1987, and belonged to the Baloch Regiment. He later served in a number of senior command and staff positions, including commander of Peshawar Corps and president of the National Defence University. His appointment as president of NDU was announced in 2021.
The Foreign Ministry said Nauman Mahmood, who holds the Hilal-e-Imtiaz (Military), will head the General Secretariat of the Makkah Joint Defence Agreement in Riyadh.
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