The guy not only passed from Sandhurst with distinction but is a brave soldier as well. Hats off to him and we need more of his kind. Well done. :k:
Prince Harry dismissively called him ‘our little Paki friend’ – but the cadet army officer he demeaned has since distinguished himself as a soldier of astonishing courage under fire by saving wounded colleagues, despite being shot in a Taliban ambush.
In a drama far outside Prince Harry’s experience of military life, Ahmed Raza Khan – now a captain in the Pakistani army – was shot in the shoulder and then spent an hour desperately fighting off a band of Islamic militant gunmen in Pakistan’s lawless northwest frontier.
At about the time Prince Harry was being kept out of Iraq because of fears for his safety and those of his colleagues, his fellow Sandhurst graduate – who was raised in a humble village – came within inches of death when he was caught in an ambush near the Afghanistan border.
Hero in the making: Ahmed Raza Khan at Sandhurst
Seventeen soldiers were killed and 13 others injured when a convoy of Captain Khan’s border regiment was targeted with a roadside bomb and then peppered with small arms fire in North Waziristan in July 2007.
The ambush was one of the bloodiest incidents of recent years in the Pakistani army’s efforts to keep its northern borders free of Taliban forces after aligning itself with America in the fight against terrorism.
Captain Khan, who had passed out from Sandhurst at the same time as the Prince just 15 months earlier, was in the passenger seat of an army car at the head of the convoy.
He was hit by a bullet which smashed the windscreen then passed clean through his shoulder, his relatives in Pakistan told The Mail on Sunday.
Displaying courage and cool-headedness, however, the young officer managed to kick open his door and roll out of the vehicle to escape the spray of bullets being directed at the convoy and then help his injured colleagues.
Remote: Captain Khan’s cousin Sohail Sarwar at the family’s village in Pakistan
He quickly regrouped with other officers to shield the wounded and return fire at the attackers for a desperate hour before reinforcements reached the bloody scene in the Madakhel area on Pakistan’s border with Afghanistan.
Five Taliban fighters died in the exchanges.
Captain Khan, now 24, was given a commendation by the army for his outstanding bravery during the ambush.
The drama took place at around the same time as Prince Harry was on exercise at a British Army training base in Canada – where he made headlines for visiting a nightclub hosted by well-endowed barmaids.
Captain Khan’s first cousin, schoolteacher Sohail Sarwar, 35, who lives in the family’s home village of Slaig, said:
‘We are all very proud of him. After he was injured he spent 15 days in an army hospital then he came back here to rest for a week. People came from all over the valley to see him and to hear his story.
‘He is a brave young man and he is modest about everything he does. When he was well again, he returned to his regiment and resumed his duties.
Captain Khan’s humble family home in the farming village of Slaig
'Ahmed was lucky but he is very brave. Of course, his mother and family worry about him all the time but he is never frightened for himself.’
The background of the Prince and Captain Khan could hardly be more different. Captain Khan spent his early years in a single-storey family home in Slaig, a remote farming village of fewer than 100 people in the mountainous Lors Valley, two hours drive from Abbotabad, where he went to school.
His family have a two-storey home in a dusty suburb of Abbotabad, a tough garrison town on the fringes of the lawless northwest area where Islamic militants hold sway and where hundreds of Pakistani soldiers have been slaughtered.
In the town, walls and roundabouts are sprayed with graffiti reading ‘Crush USA’, and the place is seen as a hotbed of insurgency and is ringed by police, army roadblocks and checkpoints.
Having excelled as a student, Ahmed won a place at Sandhurst where he trained with Harry.
His father Muhammed Yagoob Khan Abbasi, a retired official with the Muslim Commercial Bank in Abbotabad, proudly watched as his son graduated with Harry in April 2006 and was presented by the Queen with the coveted Overseas Sword, the highest honour for an overseas cadet.
According to reports, the Prince has phoned Captain Khan – who is now stationed in Karachi in the south of Pakistan – to apologise for calling him ‘Paki’ in a video which he filmed while both were Sandhurst students and which caused a storm when it was circulated worldwide last week.
Yesterday it was reported that Captain Khan told the Prince to ‘forget about it’, adding that there were no hard feelings after the incident.
He was quoted as saying: ‘The Prince called me by a nickname which is usually very insulting but I know he didn’t mean it that way. We were close friends when we were training and I know he is not a racist.’
The Ministry of Defence said the Chief of the General Staff had instructed the Royal Military Police to investigate how the video had entered the public domain, and one newspaper said the Prince would be questioned as part of the inquiry.
Pakistani Army spokesman Lt Colonel Baseer Haider Malik yesterday refused to comment on the Taliban ambush or the bravery commendation.
Prince Harry will be given a formal dressing-down this week over his ‘Paki’ jibe in a face-to-face meeting with Lt Col Harry Fullerton, commanding officer of the Household Cavalry Regiment.
This follows an informal interview Harry had with the CO last week.
Although this week’s meeting will take the form of a disciplinary hearing, it is not expected to result in Harry, who is referred to in the Army as Lt Wales, being reduced in rank or losing any perks.
A senior Army source said last night: ‘Harry will receive a b*********, told not to make such comments again and that will be the end of it.’
