Pakistan Air Force Officer Pilot Rashid Minhas was born in Karachi on February 17, 1951. He belonged to a Rajput family. He did his Masters in Military History and Aviation History from Karachi University.
Rashid Minhas joined the Pakistan Air Force on March 13, 1971 as a commissioned GD pilot. He was fascinated with the history and technology of aviation from the very beginning and was also interested in collecting models of various aircraft and warplanes.
Rashid Minhas became a pilot officer in August 1971. On August 20, 1971, as he was leaving for his first solo flight, his instructor Matiur Rehman stopped the plane on the runway and boarded with him.
In the flight, instructor Mati-ur-Rehman turned the plane towards the enemy country India but Rashid Minhas thwarted the enemy’s plot by sacrificing his life at home and turned the plane towards the ground and thwarted the enemy’s intentions. He drank the cup of martyrdom.
Rashid Minhas Shaheed sacrificed his life to defend and sanctify the country. For his unparalleled sacrifice, he was awarded the highest military honor, the Haider Medal.
He is honored to be the first officer of the Pakistan Air Force to receive the status of a martyr and to receive the Nishan Haider at an early age.
The youngest martyr to receive the Haider badge in Pakistan, Rashid Minhas, is laid to rest in a military cemetery in Karachi, while Kamra Air Base in Attock is named after Rashid Minhas Shaheed.
