William Brown (British Army officer)

William Alexander Brown MBE SI(M) (13 December 1922 – 5 December 1984) was a British military officer based in British-ruled India. He is best known for his actions during the Partition of India, when he assisted the locals of the Gilgit Agency and led a coup d'état, codenamed Operation Datta Khel, against Hari Singh, the Maharaja of the erstwhile princely state of Jammu and Kashmir. The successful coup ultimately resulted in the Gilgit Agency (in today's Gilgit−Baltistan) becoming a part of Pakistani-administered Kashmir following the First Indo−Pakistani War.