ISLAMABAD : 49th martyrdom anniversary of Rashid Minhas, the youngest Pakistan Air Force officer WAS observed Thursday.
He was born on 17 February 1951 in Karachi and was commissioned as a GD-Pilot in the PAF in March 1971.
On 20 August 1971 during a routine training mission on a T-33 Jet trainer, Rashid Minhas was stopped by an instructor Flight Lieutenant Mati-ur-Rehman who got into the instructor’s seat, seized control and tried to fly the jet to India.
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Soon the radio at Masroor Control Tower became alive and Minhas informed that he was being hijacked.
In the air, Minhas struggled physically to wrest control; each man tried to overpower the other through technically linked flight controls.
The instructor wanted him to fly to India; however, the determined Rashid was not ready for it.
Rashid Minhas while thwarting nefarious designs of his instructor crashed the jet trainer to land , some 32 miles (51 km) from the Indian border near Thatta.
Director General (DG) Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR), Major General Babar Iftikhar in his message on the occasion on Twitter paid tribute to bravery and resilience of Pilot Officer Rashid Minhas Shaheed.
“Today we remember supreme sacrifice of Pilot officer Rashid Minhas Shaheed (Nishan-e -Haider) in the line of duty. Pilot officer Rashid Minhas lived up to great traditions of Pakistan Air Force serving the motherland,” DG ISPR said in his tweet.
Rashid was posthumously awarded Pakistan’s top military honour the Nishan-i-Haider announced by then president General Yahya Khan. He became the youngest man and the only member of the Pakistan Air Force to win the award.
A short documenatary film has also been released on the martyrdom day of Rashid Minhas.
