India honoured their athlete Milkha Singh by making him a honorary captain in Army and made a movie on him “Bhaag Milkha Bhaag” in 2013. They portrayed Pakistan’s athlete Abdul Khaliq as a villain in the movie. Abdul Khaliq was a rival of Milkha Singh and it was showed in the movie that Milkha Singh defeated him in Asian Games and then an event in Lahore, but obviously they forgot to show many achievements of Pakistan’s athlete.
Sadly, many Pakistanis did not know Abdul Khaliq. Mainly because we had forgotten our hero. Pakistan Army’s soldier had shocked everyone when he won medal for Pakistan in 100m event of 1954 Asian Games. He broke the record of games by covering the distance in 10.6 seconds. Four years later, in Manila, Khaliq once again won gold medal in 100 meters race, which was his main event.
In 200 meters race, Milkha Singh and Khaliq had a great competition and Khaliq led most of the race, before he finished milliseconds behind the Indian athlete. After watching the great rivalry between both of them, Pakistan’s President Ayub Khan invited Milkha Singh and Indian athletes for competition with Pakistanis.
All eyes were on the race between Milkha Singh and Khaliq. The Pakistani athlete was a sprinter and his favorite event was 100 meters. But Milkha Singh liked 400 meters race more. The Indian athlete rejected the idea of going into Khaliq’s strength and it was our hero, who took the challenge to go into 400 meters race.
Khaliq took the lead early on, as he was a better sprinter. But Milkha Singh’s stamina helped him in the longer format of the race. Milkha won it, which was celebrated in the movie and it was showed that Ayub Khan gave Milkha the title of “Flying Sikh”. But not many know that Indian Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru had given Khaliq the title of “Flying Bird of Asia” when he twice became the fastest man in Asia and broke the record of an Indian in the process. They also forgot to mention that 1954-1958 were Khaliq’s best years in athletics, as he was past the ideal age. But Milkha Singh was still very young.
Khaliq challenged Milkha Singh in the relay race and although Pakistan had the lead, Khaliq waited for him and stopped running. When Milkha Singh came close to him, the Pakistani athlete shouted “Ab Bhaag Milkha” which means, “Run now Milkha”. Khaliq defeated him in that race, which was never mentioned in the Bollywood movie.
Unfortunately, Khaliq did not get any recognition. Indian’s portrayed their athlete like a bigger champion but many Pakistanis do not even know there was a hero named Khaliq. There is no one to talk about his massive achievements, who won more than 100 medals on national level with 26 International gold medals, 16 silver medals and numerous bronze medals.
He served Pakistan Army as a junior commissioned officer and died in 1988 in his native city Chakwal.
AB BHAG MILKHA!
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