Brig Tariq Mehmood

Brig Tariq Mehmood 

Brig Tariq Mehmood. (TM)Brig. Tariq Mehmood aka Man of steel was born in 1938, got most of his education in Rawalpinidi.

Since his very childhood he showed signs of great strength and courage . It is said that when he was around 12 years of age he fell from the tree and broke his arm so badly that bone came out of skin but instead of telling his parents, he decided to stay quiet so his parents would not be upset for his act of climbing tree .In the night time his dad heard squeak noises coming out of his room, when the dad entered the room and switched the lights he saw TM’s bone drilling out of skin and was taken to doctor, during surgery, this brave boy did not even had tear in his eye.
After his intermediate from Gordan College Rawalpindi he completed his BA from Government college Lahore. He was a member of the Government College cricket team, during that time cricketer Fazal Mehmood wrote an article in the newspaper “Pakistan Times” about future potential international Cricketers and TM’s name was mentioned in it(one of his class fellows at GC Lahore Javed Barki later became Captain of Pakistan Team). After completing his BA from G.C.Lahore he enrolled in University Law College Peshawar, but later joined army and when to PMA Kakul.

He passed out from PMA in 1960 and was commissioned in 2nd Battalion of The Baloch Regiment. He was selected for Special Services Group (SSG) in 1963, on completing his commando training he was posted to the Shaheen Company of 1st commando battalion.Once in a physical efficiency excrcise, a big rock stone fell over his forehead and was broken into two pieces.

In 1965 when SSG was preparing for Operations in Kashmir Capt T.M. was selected to go to USA for an advance course, but he dropped himself from it to go into battle with his commrades. During the 1965 war he was awarded Sitara-e-Juraat (SJ) for his heroic actions in the Kargil Sector. He was promoted to the rank of Major in 1970 and was posted to Peshawar as the commandant Para Training School.

In 1971 T.M again went into action, this time in East .He was the officer in command to get the direct order from General "if you hear or see the fire, burn the place down". He fulfilled his duty so well that Dhaka Airport which was almost no fly zone because of terrorist activity in the surrounding areas, was free again in 34 hours. . He lead a team of 25 Commandos to capture a bridge over the river Braham-Putra from the enemy, he was hit by two bullets but continued to fight till the mission was successfully complete. He was awarded his second Sitara-e-Jurat (SJ) in 1971.
He was the last officer on that rank that left Dhaka, after fall. At the time of his Shahdat, Indian Govt had a prize on his head

1973 he was posted to 3rd commando battalion and in 1974 he was promoted to the rank of Lt.Colonel. He took command of 3rd Commando battalion in March 1977. In the summar of 1977 some tribals blocked the KaraKuram Highway which links Pakistan and China. TM was given the task to get the road opened, he completed the mission with full success, for this he was awarded Sitara-e-Bisalat (S.Bt.). In 1979 he was promoted to Full Colonel and in 1982 he was made a Brigadier and posted as commandant SSG.

In 1983 he led a team to free a PANAM airplane from hijackers at Karachi internation airport, the hijackers opened fire when the plane’s generator failed killing and injuring some passangers but due to SSG’s quick action soon all the hijackers were killed saving many lives. In the later 1987-88 he lead operations against criminals in Sindh.
Brig T.M always lead the team of SSG paratroopers during the 23rd March parade carrying the National Flag, he did this last on 23rd March 1989.

On 29th May 1989 he led the team of SSG paratrooper for a free-fall at Army Aviation School,Raholi near Gujranwala, this jump was part of Army Aviation’s Passing Out parade. His parachute didn’t open.
the way he died ( embraced Shahdah) was tragic.
His first Parachute didn't open and the ropes got mixed up, so badly, he cut those ropes with the dagger he had, and tried to open the backup Parachute. that also got cut, coz at that moment the amount of velocity with which he was coming down was enormous. He tried his best till the end, but unfortunately he lost both of his parachutes.
The moment he hit the ground, it was estimated that due to high momentum his body mass was about 200 TONS.