Pilot Officer Rashid Minhas or Rashid Minhas Shaheed, NH, (Urdu: راشد منہاس) (February 17, 1951 – August 20, 1971) was a Pilot Officer in the Pakistan 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 trainercrash while struggling to regain the controls from a defecting pilot: Matiur Rahman.
Service/branch | Pakistan Air Force |
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Years of service | 1971 |
Rank | Pilot Officer (2nd Lieutenant) |
Service number | PAF No-5602 |
Unit | No. 2 Squadron Minhas |
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[4][5] (Urdu: شاہراہ راشد منہاس). A two-rupee postage stamp bearing his image was issued by Pakistan Postin December 2003; 500,000 were printed.