The youngest achiever of top military award ‘Nishan-e-Haider’ and shortest serving officer, Rashid Minhas, was remembered on Tuesday on his 48th death anniversary.
To honour the brave officers, the Pakistan Air Force (PAF) base at Kamra has been renamed after him, while a main street was named after him as Rashid Minhas Road.
On August 20, 1971, when he was getting ready to take off in a T 33 trainer in Karachi, his instructor pilot Flight Lieutenant Matiur Rahman forced his way into the rear cockpit, seized control of the aircraft and took off.
Air chief says Rashid Minhas’s life beacon of light for future generations
With the intention of defecting to India, Matiur Rahman knocked Minhas out in mid-air.
Rashid Minhas regained consciousness in mid-flight and realised that his plane was being hijacked.
He desperately tried to communicate to the PAF Masroor Base at 11:30 am about his hijacking by Matiur Rahman. After a tussle between the two pilots, ultimately the plane crashed.
Rashid Minhas Shaheed foiled enemy designs to get Pakistan Air force plane to be hijacked to Indian territory.
The plane was found later 32km away from Indian border.
The brave officer had joined the air force on March 13, 1971 and was commissioned in the 51st GD (P) Course.
Once during his training sessions at the Kamra Airbase he was in a test flight when his T 33 started leaking oil and he was instructed to eject and save himself but Minhas decided that he would not let the plane crash and then very carefully he managed to land the plane back on the airbase.
Meanwhile, Chief of the Air Staff Air Chief Marshal Mujahid Anwar Khan on Tuesday paid rich tribute to martyred pilot officer Rashid Minhas.
According to a press release issued by the PAF spokesperson, Mujahid Anwar Khan said that Rashid Minhas laid down his life for the defence of the motherland.
He said that the nation would remember his great sacrifice eternally and added that his life was a beacon of light for the future generations.
The air chief said that every official of the PAF was ready to lay down his life for Pakistan by following the footprint of Rashid Minhas.