ISPR pays tributes to Rashid Minhas

KARACHI: The ISPR has paid glowing homage to Pilot Officer Rashid Minhas Shaheed (Nishan-e-Haider) who laid down his life beyond the call of duty, on this day 49 years ago.

Paying tributes, DG ISPR Major General Babar Iftikhar said in a tweet: “Today we remember the 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.”

Minhas, the youngest officer to be awarded the Nishan-e-Haider, achieved martyrdom while preventing his instructor who had hijacked the aircraft to force him with the PAF jet to defect to India during the 1971 war. Minhas managed to wrestle control from the instructor and crashed the plane just a few miles from the Indian border to foil the enemy designs.