Rashid Minhas
Rashid Minhas or Rashid Minhas Shaheed (born February 17, 1951 / d. August 20, 1971) was a Pilot Officer in the Pakistan Air Force during the 1971 Bangladesh Liberation War. He was new to the Air Force having been commissioned that year.
On August 20, 1971 Minhas was getting ready to take-off in a T-33 trainer in Karachi when a Bengali pilot, Matiur Rahman forced his way into the back of the plane. Rahman knocked out Minhas with some blunt object and tried to defect to India in order to join the liberation movement for Bangladesh.
Minhas regained consciousness and realized that the plane was heading towards India. What happened next has not been ascertained, but it is widely believed that the ensuing struggle between Minhas and Rahman resulted in the crash of the plane just thirty miles from the border of India.
For his act he was awarded top military honor, Nishan-E-Haider, becomes the youngest man to win the award, and the only member of the Pakistan Air Force to win it. With this award he has become a national hero. The Pakistan Air Force base at Kamra has been renamed in his honor.
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