Nation observes 51st martyrdom anniversary of Rashid Minhas

Nation observes 51st martyrdom anniversary of Rashid Minhas. Nation observes the 51st martyrdom anniversary of the Pakistan Air Force officer, who was awarded Nishan-e-Haider, Rashid Minhas.

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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Rashid battled to take back the controls of the aircraft and finally preferred to crash the plane before it could cross the border.

The brave son of soil accepted to sacrifice his life but did not allow the country’s dignity to be tarnished.

He was awarded the military’s highest honour Nishan-e-Haider posthumously for his bravery.

The ancestors of Rashid Minhas were born in Qila Sobha Singh, Punjab and later on they moved to Karachi and Rashid Minhas was born in Karachi.

His father, Majeed Minhas, a civil engineer and an alumnus of the NED University in Karachi, was in a construction management business who later moved to Lahore, Punjab, for the construction project.

He was educated in Lahore and took admission in the British-managed St. Mary’s School in Rawalpindi when his father found an employment opportunity. But later they permanently settled in Karachi.