Friday, September 12, 2014

Major Shabbir Sharif Shaheed Nishan-e-Haider

Major Shabbir Sharif Shaheed Nishan-e-Haider
Major Shabbir Sharif Shaheed
Nishan-e-Haider

He was born on 28 April 1943 in Kunjah, Gujrat District. He was commissioned into the Frontier Force Regiment on 19 April 1964. Major Shabbir Sharif, as commander of a company of 6 Frontier Force Regiment, was ordered in December 1971 to capture high ground near Sulemanki Headworks defended by more than a company of the Assam Regiment supported by a squadron of tanks. In a well organized superhuman action, for the next three days and nights after crossing a minefield and massive obstacles and killing forty-three soldiers and destroying four tanks, Major Shabbir Sharif and his men held two enemy battalions at bay. But after he took over an anti-tank gun from his gunner in an attack he embraced martyrdom by a direct hit in the afternoon of 6 December 1971.

Thursday, September 11, 2014

Pilot Officer Rashid Minhas Shaheed Nishan-e-Haider

Pilot Officer Rashid Minhas Shaheed Nishan-e-Haider
Pilot Officer Rashid Minhas Shaheed
Nishan-e-Haider

He was born on 17 February 1951. He was commissioned as a pilot in the Pakistan Air Force in 1971. Pilot Officer Rashid Minhas was taxiing for take off 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 realised 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.

Wednesday, September 10, 2014

Major Raja Aziz Bhatti Shaheed Nishan-e-Haider

Major Raja Aziz Bhatti Shaheed Nishan-e-Haider
Major Raja Aziz Bhatti Shaheed Nishan-e-Haider
He was born in 1928 in Hong Kong. He was commissioned into the Punjab Regiment, in 1950. On 6 September 1965, as a Company Commander in the Burki area of the Lahore sector, Major Raja Aziz Bhatti chose to stay with his forward platoon under incessant artillery and tank attacks for five days and nights in the defence of the strategic BRB Canal. Throughout, undaunted by constant fire from enemy small arms, tanks and artillery, he organized the defence of the canal, directing his men to answer the fire until he was hit by an enemy tank shell and embraced martyrdom on 10 September 1965.

Monday, September 1, 2014

Major Tufail Muhammad Shaheed Nishan-e-Haider

Major Tufail Muhammad Shaheed Nishan-e-Haider
Major Tufail Muhammad Shaheed
Nishan-e-Haider

He was born in 1914 in Hoshiarpur. He was commissioned into the 16th Punjab Regiment in 1943. In August 1958, Major Tufail Muhammad, a Company Commander in the East Pakistan Rifles, and his patrol encircled an Indian post in the Lakshmirpur area. And, though mortally wounded in the hand-to-hand encounter that followed, Major Tufail Muhammad continued to lead his troops till the Indians were driven out, leaving four dead and three prisoners. He embraced martyrdom the same day i.e, 7 August 1958.