Opinion Cadet College Hasanabdal: Pak military school where David Headley first met Tahawwur Rana

Rana and Headley first met and became close friends in the 1970s at Cadet College Hasanabdal (CCH). Here’s all you need to know about Pakistan’s most elite military prep school, one that boasts some of Pakistan’s most influential people as its alumni.

On the lines of Dehradun’s RIMC

Established in 1952, the Cadet College Hasanabdal was the first quasi-military boarding school of its kind in Pakistan.

Main building of CCH. (Facebook/CCH Alumni)

CCH was the brainchild of General Muhammad Ayub Khan, the Commander-in-Chief of the Pakistan Army who went on to become the country’s second President in 1958. The idea was to establish an elite institution which would feed the Pakistani Services Academies, on the lines of the Rashtriya Indian Military College (RIMC), Dehradun.

The school shifted to its present campus in Hasanabdal, some 50 km to the north-west of Islamabad, in 1960. Hasanabdal is also the home to Gurdwara Panja Sahib, one of the holiest pilgrimage sites in Sikhism.

Modelled around British elite boarding schools in Britain, CCH had British principals till 1971. Notably, its first principal, Sir Hugh Catchpole, also taught at the RIMC (then the Prince of Wales Royal Indian Military College).

Feeder to Pakistani armed forces

CCH takes cadets from Classes 8 to 12. They can either sit for the SSC and HSSC examinations from Federal Board Islamabad, or GCE O Level and A Level examinations from Cambridge board. Roughly 600 students (batch size of 120) are enrolled at CCH at any time.

According to CCH’s website, “The training is oriented to prepare the cadets for the Armed Forces, but they are at liberty to pursue any career of their choice.” However, the school is most known to churn out cadets who rise to the top ranks in the Pakistani military.

“In the battlefield, the old boys of this College have set records of bravery by sacrificing their lives for their sacred Motherland. Sitara-e-Jurat has been conferred on as many as 18 old boys of the College!” the website says. Sitara-e-Jurat is the third highest military honour in Pakistan.

Prominent alumni include former Chiefs of Naval Staff Admiral Zafar Mahmood Abbasi and Muhammad Zakaullah, current Defence Minister Khwaja Asif, former Defence Minister Khurram Dastgir Khan, and former Chief of Air Staff Abbas Khattak, among others.

Early lives of Headley, Rana

Headley was born Daood Sayed Gilani in Washington DC to a Pakistani father and American mother in 1960. His father, Sayed Salim Gilani, was a well-known Pakistani diplomat and broadcaster.

Shortly after Headley’s birth, his family relocated to Pakistan, where Headley grew up in a highly nationalistic environment. After graduating from CCH, he returned to the US aged 17, and took on his mother’s maiden name.

Rana was born in 1961 in Pakistan. After graduating from CCH, he served as a captain general duty practitioner in the Pakistan Army Medical Corps. He would eventually leave the military and settle in Canada. He is today a Canadian citizen.

Not much is publicly known about Rana and Headley’s time at CCH. A 2011 NIA press release said: “Both David Coleman Headley and Tahawwur Hussain Rana had passed out from the Hassan Abdal Military College in Pakistan and both wanted to participate in Jihad against India and Western powers.”