A brigand since his teens, Čakr-paša deserted his guard service at the Serbian–Ottoman border in 1878 and became infamous in the following years for killing Ottoman officials, and also exploiting locals.

Having survived the Serbian–Ottoman War (1876–78), Kumanovo Uprising (1878) and Brsjak Revolt (1880–81), his end came in 1885, after years on the run (and wanted list) from both Ottoman soldiers and gendarmerie, and Serbian border guards, when his comrade slit his throat.

[1] His father was Stojan (hence the surname), and Mladen had two brothers, older Stevan and younger Anđel, and lived in the mahala (neighbourhood) of Meteževci.

[2] Already in his teens, it is said, Mladen came into conflict with the Ottoman government and was imprisoned at Vranje, only to be released after his mother begged to have him freed on a Christian feast day.

[5] After the war, he was briefly, for a couple of months, a pandur (policeman) or guard in Vranje, but saw it as humiliating and crossed the Serbian–Ottoman border and returned to brigandage.

[7] After the suppression of the Kumanovo Uprising, the rebels that had fled to Vranje soon again began to cross Kozjak and German into the villages of Pčinja, where they would await Turks and Albanians in the dark.

[5] In springtime 1881, in the Devet Jugovića-inn in Vranje, Micko Krstić assembled a band of 13 fighters, friends, blood-brothers and followers, and left Serbia.

[11] On the Porte's request,[1] the Serbian government under Milan Piroćanac proclaimed him an outlaw (renegade) in 1882,[4] and then at the end of the year likewise by the srez (district) captain in Vranje.

[2] "For three years, Čakr-paša [lived off of] brigandage in Serbia, Bulgaria and the Ottoman Empire, receiving threats and blackmail from Sofia, Constantinople and Belgrade.

[4] After his death there were local stories of him as a fearless, stone-cold and raw individual,[4] and also epic poems holding him a brave and sly hero.