Rashid Minhas Shaheed

Pakistani hero awarded with Nishan-i-Haider

Rashid Minhas, great Pakistani hero awarded with Nishan-i-Haider for his sacrifice for the homeland, is being remembered on his death anniversary today (Saturday).

Rashid Minhas was born on 17 February 1951 in Karachi. Rashid Minhas belonged to a famous Minhas clan of Rajput. 

Minhas was fascinated with aviation history and technology. He used to collect different models of aircraft and jets. After schooling, he attended Karachi University where he studied Military history and Aviation history.  

He was commissioned as a pilot in the Pakistan Air Force in 1971. Pilot Officer Rashid Minhas was taxiing for takeoff on a routine training flight when an Instructor Pilot forced his way into the rear cockpit, seized control of the aircraft and took off. 

When Rashid Minhas realized that the absconding pilot was heading towards India, he tried to regain control of the plane but was unable to do so. Knowing that it meant certain death, he damaged the controls and forced the aircraft to crash thirty-two miles short of the border on 20 August 1971.

Rashid Minhas is also the youngest and short-service officer, belonging to the Pakistan Armed Forces, who received the Nishan-i-Haider in 1971.

Defence Day Special - Rashid Minhas by Raja Dildar Hussain

Rashid Minhas:

          Pilot Officer Rashid Minhas or Rashid Minhas Shaheed, NH, (Urdu: راشد منہاس شہید‎) (February 17, 1951 – August 20, 1971) was a Pilot Officer in thePakistan 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 trainer crash while struggling to regain the controls from a defecting pilot: Matiur Rahman.

Early life and education:

        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 and belonged to the Minhas Rajput clan. 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 attended Karachi University where he studied military history and aviation history.

Death

      Having joined the air force, Minhas was commissioned on March 13, 1971, in the 51st GD(P) 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. Minhas was taxiing 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.

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, 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 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.

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. 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 to be thrown from the cockpit because he was not strapped in. Chaudhry felt that the jet was too close to the ground at that time, too far out of control for Minhas to be able to prevent the crash.

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 (Urdu:شاہراہ راشد منہاس‎). A two-rupee postage stamp bearing his image was issued by Pakistan Post in December 2003; 500,000 were printed.

Nishan-e-Haider:

      Nishan-e-Haider or Nishan-e-Hyder (Urdu: ئشان حیدر‎, translated as "Emblem of Haider, where Haider is the epithet of Hazrat Ali and means Lion", abbreviated as NH) is the highest military decoration given by Pakistan (it is the equivalent to the Victoria Cross and the Medal of Honor under the British Honours System and the United States Honors System respectively). It was established in 1957 after Pakistan became a Republic, however, it was instituted retroactively from Independence in 1947. It is awarded to military personnel, regardless of rank, for extraordinary bravery in combat. The award is considered to be the highest military award and has only been awarded to those who have sacrificed their life for the country. Its exclusivity may be gauged by the fact that since it was established only 11 awards have been made, along with one equivalent award. To date all awards have been madeposthumously. However, death of the individual during the act of extreme courage is not mandatory for qualification for Nishan-e-Haider. Of the 11 recipients, 10 have been from the Pakistan Army, one has been from thePakistan Air Force and no one from Pakistan Navy.