51th Martyrdom anniversary of Rashid Minhas being observed

KARACHI (92 News) - The 51th martyrdom anniversary of Rashid Minhas is being observed today.

Rashid Minhas was posthumously awarded Pakistan’s top military honour, the Nishan-E-Haider, and he is the youngest officer who received the Nishan-e-Haider award. He is the only recipient of the highest honour of gallantry from Pakistan Air Force.

Rashid Minhas was born on February 17, 1951 at Karachi. He spent his early childhood in Lahore. Later, the family shifted to Rawalpindi. Rashid Minhas had his early education from St Mary’s Cambridge School Rawalpindi. Later his family shifted to Karachi.

Rashid Minhas was fascinated with aviation history and technology. He used to collect different models of aircraft and jets. Having joined the air force, Rashid Minhas was commissioned on March 13, 1971, in the 51st GDP Course. He began training to become a pilot.

On August 20 of that year, in the hour before noon, he was getting ready to take off in a T-33 jet trainer in Karachi, his second solo flight in that type of aircraft. Rashid Minhas was taxing toward the runway when a Bengali instructor pilot, Flight Lieutenant Matiur Rahman, signalled him to stop and then climbed into the instructor’s seat. The jet took off and turned toward India. Rashid Minhas radioed PAF Base Masroor with the message that he was being hijacked. The air controller requested that he resend his message, and he confirmed the hijacking.

Later investigation showed that Rahman intended to defect to India to join his compatriots in the Bangladesh Liberation War, along with the jet trainer. in the air, Rashid Minhas struggled physically to wrest control from Rahman; each man tried to overpower the other through the mechanically linked flight controls. Some 32 miles (51 km) from the Indian border, the jet crashed near Thatta. Both men were killed.

In his memory the Pakistan Air Force base at Kamra was renamed PAF Base Minhas, often called Minhas-Kamra.

In Karachi, he was honoured by the naming of a main road, Rashid Minhas Road. A two-rupee postage stamp bearing his image was issued by Pakistan Post in December 2003; 500,000 were printed.