“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 PM
On 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]!”
