Here are the some golden Memories of Rashid Minhas [Hero of Pakistan].
He was such a true patriot. He made Pakistan PROUD, He saved Pakistan from embarrassment.
Share this video if you love him and Pakistan..
Rashid Minhas – Youngest recipient of Nishan-e-Haider
On August 20th, Pakistan remembers the youngest recipient of Nishan-e-Haider - Rashid Minhas - who embraced martyrdom in 1971. Minhas was honored as a national hero for preventing a PAF plane from being hijacked to India.
Pilot Officer Rashid Minhas (Urdu: راشد منہاس NH) was a Pakistani pilot in the Pakistan Air Force. Minhas was the only PAF officer to receive the highest valour award, the Nishan-e-Haider.
He was also the youngest person and the shortest-serving officer to
have received this award. During the routine training mission in August
1971, Minhas attempted to gain control of his jet trainer when his superior officer Flight Lieutenant Matiur Rahman hijacked his plane and was trying to defect to India to join the Liberation war of Bangladesh which then crashed near the Thatta District, Sindh in Pakistan.
Biography:
Rashid Minhas was born on 17 February 1951, in Karachi to a Punjabi Muslim rajput family[1][2][3] of the Minhas clan. Rashid Minhas spent his early childhood in Karachi. Later, the family shifted to Rawalpindi. Later his family shifted back to Karachi. Minhas was fascinated with aviation history and technology. He used to collect different models of aircraft and jets. He also attended St Patrick's High School, Karachi.[4]
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.[5] 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.[5]
He passed and qualified for his Senior Cambridge examination and performed well while finishing the O-level and A-level qualifications from the St. Patrick's High School.[4]: 181 [6] His father, Majeed Minhas, wanted his son, Rashid, to follow his step by attending the engineering university and strongly desired for his son to gain a degree in engineering after finishing his high schooling in Karachi.: 182 [6] Against the wishes of his father, Rashid entered in the PAF School in Lower Topa in 1968, the Air Force's officer candidate school, and forwarded towards completing his military training at the Pakistan Air Force Academy in 1969.
Legacy:
After his death, Minhas was honoured as a national hero. 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'[11][12] (Urdu: شاہراہ راشد منہاس). A two-rupee postage stamp bearing his image was issued by Pakistan Post in December 2003; 500,000 were printed.
He is remembered for his martyrdom on 20th August 1971 in a jet trainer crash while he was struggling to regain the controls from a defecting pilot: Flight Lieutenant Matiur Rahman. Indian supported insurgency in former East Pakistan, now Bangladesh, was at its peak.
The failed attempt, by Flight Lieutenant, Matiur Rahman, to defect to India took place few months before India formally attacked former East Pakistan in December 1971. The plane, a T-33 Trainer jet, crashed in Thatta District in Sindh, Pakistan. Rashid Minhas was born on February 17, 1951, at Karachi, to a Muslim Rajput family of the Minhas clan.
Rashid Minhas spent his early childhood in Karachi. Later, the family shifted to Rawalpindi. Minhas had his early education from St Mary’s Cambridge School Rawalpindi. Later his family shifted back to Karachi. Minhas was fascinated with aviation history and technology. He used to collect different models of aircraft and jets since childhood.
He also attended St Patrick’s High School, Karachi, where he did his O-levels and A-levels. His father, Majeed Minhas, wanted him to follow in his footsteps by attending the engineering university after finishing his high schooling in Karachi.
Against the wishes of his father, however, Rashid entered in the PAF School in Lower Topa in 1968 (Air Force’s officer candidate school) and moved to Pakistan Air Force Academy in 1969 to complete his training. Having joined the Pakistan Air Force (PAF) Minhas was commissioned on March 13, 1971, in the 51st GD(P) Course.
In the air, 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.
Minhas was posthumously awarded Pakistan’s top military honor, the Nishan-e-Haider. No living person has ever been awarded this highest award which makes it all the more unique. Similarly, Matiur Rahman was later honoured by Bangladesh with their highest military award, the Bir Sreshtho.
It
is believed that Matiur Rahman’s attempted defection with the plane was
not his individual act but was part of the overall Indian plan to
support the insurgent sentiment with a series of acts to create a
narrative. After his death, Minhas was honored as a national hero.
The Pakistan Air Force base at Kamra was renamed PAF Base Minhas in his memory, often called Minhas-Kamra or Minhas Base. In Karachi, he was honoured by the naming of a main road, ‘Rashid Minhas Road’. Pakistan Post also issued a two-rupee postage stamp bearing his image in December 2003.
