Rashid Minhas

Pilot Officer Rashid Minhas or Rashid Minhas Shaheed, NH, (Urdu: راشد منہاس‎) (February 17, 1951 – August 20, 1971) was a Pilot Officer in the Pakistan Air Force (PAF) during the 1971 Pakistan-India War. Minhas, a newly commissioned officer at that time, is the only PAF officer to receive the highest valour award, the Nishan-e-Haider. He is also the youngest person and the shortest-serving officer to have received this award. He is remembered for his death in 1971 in a jet trainercrash while struggling to regain the controls from a defecting pilot: Matiur Rahman

Rashid Minhas was born on February 17, 1951, in Karachi. He was born to a family that had settled in Gurdaspur from Jammu and Kashmir. After the creation of Pakistan, the family migrated there and lived near Sialkot. Minhas spent his early childhood in Lahore. Later, the family shifted to Rawalpindi. Minhas had his early education from St Mary's Cambridge School Rawalpindi. Later his family shifted to Karachi. Minhas was fascinated with aviation history and technology. He used to collect different models of aircraft and jets. He studied from Saint Mary's Cambridge School, Murree Road, Rawalpindi and completed his O Levels at the age of 16. He also attended St Patrick's High School, Karachi and then attendedKarachi University where he studied military history and aviation history.

Minhas was posthumously awarded Pakistan's top military honour, the Nishan-E-Haider, and became the youngest man and the only member of the Pakistan Air Force to win the award. Similarly, Rahman was honoured by Bangladesh with their highest military award, the Bir Sreshtho.

Pilot officer Rashid Minhas, 1971.

Born

February 17, 1951

Karachi, Sindh province, West Pakistan

Died

August 20, 1971 (aged 20)

Thatta, Sindh province, West Pakistan

Allegiance

 Pakistan

Service/branch

 Pakistan Air Force

Years of service

1971

Rank

 Pilot Officer (2nd Lieutenant)

Service number

PAF No-5602

Unit

No. 2 Squadron Minhas

Awards

Nishan-e-Haider

 Minhas's Pakistan military citation for the Nishan-E-Haider states that he "forced the aircraft to crash" in order to prevent Rahman from taking the jet to India.[2] This is the official, popular and widely known version of how Minhas died. Yawar A. Mazhar, a writer for Pakistan Military Consortium, relayed in 2004 that he spoke to retired PAF Group Captain Cecil Chaudhry about Minhas, and that he learned more details not generally known to the public. According to Mazhar, Chaudhry lead the immediate task of investigating the wreckage and writing the accident report. Chaudhry told Mazhar that he found the jet had hit the ground nose first, instantly killing Minhas in the front seat. Rahman's body, however, was not in the jet and the canopy was missing. Chaudhry searched the area and saw Rahman's body some distance behind the jet, the body found with severe abrasions from hitting the sand at a low angle and a high speed. Chaudhry thought that Minhas probably jettisoned the canopy at low altitude causing Rahman

Cdr Ghazanfar Latif

in march / aprail , wg cdr ghazanfar latif  (then OC No.5 Sqn) reached the unique milestone of becoming the 8th Pakistan Air Force F-16 pilot to complete 2000hrs. Wg Cdr Ghazanfar has been flying   F-16s since 1996 and apart from participating in domestic  exercises & operational deployments. He has also actively participated in several multinational exercises for PAF that include Exercise Anatolian Eagle 2004 (Turkey), Indus Viper 2008 (Pakistan) and Falcon Talon 2009 (Pakistan)

PAF has been operating F-16s since January 1983 and since then hundreds of thousands of flying hours have been accumulated by the Pakistani pilots. Over fifty PAF pilots have surpassed the 1000hrs benchmark.

PNS Mehran Hero Lieutenant Yasir Abbas Shaheed

Who amongst us can forget the evening of 22ndMay 2011? The audacity of the extremist and terrorists forces in Pakistan was seen on this evening, when armed with AK-47s, M-16s, hand grenades, RPGs and night vision goggles, they attacked the Pakistan Naval Base Mehran situated in Karachi. Eighteen personnel of Pakistan Security Forces lost their lives and sixteen of them were wounded. Among those who were martyred was one Lieutenant Yasir Abbas Shaheed.

Lt. Yasir Abbas Shaheed was born in 1986 in Lahore. After his early education, he joined the armed forces through 67th EC PAF course, then trained at Risalpur from where he graduated with a degree in Aeronautics. Before the audacious attack began, he was on the phone with his mother, who knew not that she was hearing her son’s voice for the last. While he was conversing with his mother, he heard gunshots and blasts and told his mother he would be right back after investigating. He never returned. Instead, back came his body, wrapped in a Pakistani flag. The brave son of the land took three bullets to his chest and achieved the high status of a Shaheed.

Lt. Yasir Abbas Shaheed was described by his peers and seniors as a smart, dedicated and courageous soldier, who was always wililng to help anybody. He was quite handsome and he was engaged to get married within the next four months but fate had other plans. His family describes him as a very able and sharp boy, both as a youth and an adult. He belonged to a military family with his maternal grandfather also in the Pakistan Army as a doctor and his own father is a retired Colonel. The thing that brings the most tears in ones eyes is the fact that he was the only brother of three sisters. No doubt that they will be extremely proud of him, but surely they miss their only brother, who so selflessly gave his life for Pakistan.

Such events in life makes one wonder, who are these animals who so mercilessly kill sons, brothers and husbands? But it also shows that in the country which was created by Muslims, in the name of Allah, there never will be a scarcity of heroic and brave men, who are willing to sacrifice everything for the sake of the motherland. And as long as such men continue to exist, we as Pakistanis, should always hold our head high, with pride and continue working towards a better and more secure Pakistan for all. Pakistan Zindabaad.

Air Cheif Marshal Mushaf Ali Mir

Air Chief Marshal Mushaf Ali Mir (5 March 1947 – 20 February 2003) was an influential statesman and a four-star air chief marshal, who was the sixteenth chief of air staff of Pakistan Air Force (PAF), serving from 20 November 2000 until his accidental death on 20 February 2003.

A fighter pilot and air operations strategist, Mir commanded the strategic aerial combat missions during the civil war in Afghanistan, and also commanded PAF forces during the 2001 Indo-Pakistan standoff

Mushaf Ali Mir was born in Lahore, and was one of nine children of a middle class Kashmiri family of Shia Muslim origin.[1]His father, Farzand Ali Mir, was a calligrapher who died when Mushaf was young. He attended Government Wattan Islamia High School, Lahore.[

On February 20, 2003, the Pakistani Air Chief died along with his wife, Bilquis Mir, and all 15 other officers on board, when their Fokker F-27 crashed during a routine flight to PAF Base Kohat. The casualties included other high ranking officials of the Air Force including two Principal Staff Officers – Air Vice Marshal Abdul Razzaq, DCAS (Training) and Air Vice Marshal Saleem Nawaz, DCAS (Administration) – and the air crew.

Air Commodore Kaiser Tufail

Air Commodore Kaiser Tufail

Kaiser Tufail was commissioned in 1975. After performing duties as a squadron pilot, he went on to command a fighter squadron (No.8 Tactical Attack Squadron equipped with Mirage V). Later he commanded a flying wing (No 34 Tactical Attack Wing) at PAF Base Rafiqui.[4] He also commanded PAF Base Masroor.

He has had the opportunity of flying virtually all types of trainers and fighters of the PAF. These include T-6G Harvard, MFI-17 Mushaak, T-37, FT-5 (dual-seat MiG-17), F-6 (MiG-19), Mirage-III/5, F-16A/B Fighting Falcon, Mirage F-1E (Qatari AF), F-7P (MiG-21) and the F-7PG (F-7 double-delta variant).[1]

He was the Director of Operations of the Pakistan Air Force (PAF) during the Kargil conflict.[2] He also served as Deputy Commandant Air War College.[1]

He retired from the PAF in 2005.[1]

Allegiance

 Pakistan

Service/branch

 Pakistan Air Force

Years of service

30[1]

Rank

Air Commodore[2][3]

Commands held

No.8 Squadron

No.34 Flying Wing

PAF Base Masroor.[1]

Other work

Aviation History, Indus ValleyArchaeology, Population Genetics, Adventure & Exploration.

Waleed Ehsanul Karim

Waleed Ehsanul Karim

part in the Republic Day fly past at Rawalpindi on 23rd March 1964. He died when his recently repaired aircraft (which was hit by anti-aircraft guns at Rann of Kutch in the morning sortie) developed engine trouble and plunged into the Arabian sea about 10-15 miles off the south coast of Karachi

 in the night of 19 April 1965 when he was returning from a reconnaissance mission over Gujarat.

He had participated at the Rann of Kutch battle by dropping smoke bombs in daytime to screen the infantry attacks. Neither his body,

 nor the aircraft was recovered. But a part of the rudder was later recovered from the same location after two months.

At that time he was a fighter pilot of 17th Sqaudron (the Tigers) of the Pakistan Air Force. Air Marshal Azim Daudpota was his Squadron Leader at that time. 

Flight Lieutenant M. Matiur Rahman, Bir Sreshtho, Air Vice Marshal Momtaz Uddin Ahmed were his course mates in both Sargodha and Risalpur.