Rashid Minhas: PAF's first Nishan-i-Haider touches the height of glory

Rashid Minhas, the young Pakistani Air Force pilot, touches the height of gory. On Aug 29, President General A. M. Yahya Khan announced the posthumous award of Nishan-i-Hader, the highest gallantry award, to Pilot Officer Rashid Minhas, who prevented a Pakistan Air Force Plane from being hijacked to India and made the supreme sacrifice in the service of the nation.

Pilot Officer Minhas is the first member of the Pakistan Air Force to receive this award. The first three were Major Tufail Mohammad Captain Ghulam Sarwar and Major Aziz Bhatti of the Pakistan Army. All three previous awards were also posthumous. The following is the citation of the award: "On the morning of Friday, 20th August, 1971, Pilot Officer Rashid Minhas, a pilot still under training, was in the front seat of a jet trainer, taxiing out for take off. "An instructor pilot from the same unit forced his way into the rear cockpit, seized control of the aircraft and, having taken off, headed the aircraft towards India. one "With just some forty miles of Pakistani territory remaining, Rashid Minhas had only one course open to him: to prevent his aircraft from entering India.

Without hesitation, and living up to the highest traditions of the Pakistan Air Force, Rashid Minhas tried to regain control of his aircraft, but finding this to be impossible in the face of the superior skill and experience of his instructor, forced the aircraft to crash, at a point 32 miles from the Indian border. "In doing so, Pilot Officer Minhas deliberately made the supreme sacrifice for the honour of Pakistan and the service to which he belonged. "For this act of heroism, above and beyond the call of duty, the President of Pakistan is pleased to award the Nishan-i-Halder to Pilot Officer Rashid Minhas.".

Mr Abdul Majid Minhas, father of Pilot Officer Rashid Minhas, has said: "Although the grief of my son's death is unending, I am proud that he laid down his life for a noble cause and for the integrity and honour of the country and nation. In an interview telecast of Karachi Television, he said that Rashid was from the very beginning interested in a career in which he could serve the country and nation according to the best of his capacities. He said Rashid Minhas was fond of reading books on war during his student life and noted important quotations in his diary.

A quotation in his diary said. "The greatest honour for a man is to sacrifice his life for the country and live up to the expectation of the nation." Mr. Minhas said he heard the news of the award Nishan-i-Haider to his son over Radio Pakistan in the evening 5 p.m. bulletin. Asked about Rashid's education, Mr. Majia Minhas said he studied in St. Mary's Cambridge School at Rawalpindi and did his Senior Cambridge from Karachi. He joined the Pakistan Air Force in 1968 and got commission in April this year.

Pilot Officer Rashid Minhas passed his Bachelor of Science Aeronautics Examination at the PAF Academy with high honours. receiving a first division. His father said his eldest son had a technical turn of mind, having learned to drive on the quiet at the age of twelve. His personal library included books on Electronics and Astronomy, besides other subjects. His hobbies included reading, photography, hockey and billiards. Mr. Minhas said his late son was an idealist who had made up his mind at an early age how best to serve his country. He refused to even consider appearing for the Central Superior Services Examination, he added.

Inspiration According to Mr. Minhas, his late son had been deeply impressed by his brother-in-law, Maj. Nasir Ahmed Khan, a recipient of the Sitara-i-Jurat. Some other relatives are also serving in the Armed Forces. He said his son was of a quiet disposition and was a modest boy, not given to boasting, and not interested in making money. Mr. Minhas said in a way Pilot Officer Minhas had been linked with the PAF since his birth, having been born at the PAF Hospital, Karachi. He said the supreme sacrifice made by his son had given him great pride. "We are soldiers prepared to lay down our lives for the nation," he added.

Mr. Minhas said he and his other family members were planning to arrange for the publication of his son's diaries in due course. Pilot Officer Minhas was said to rest at the Defence Graveyard here on August 21 with full military honours. The young trainee pilot's entire family attended the funeral. along with senior PAF and other Armed Forces personnel. He left two younger brothers and four sisters. His father, who served in the old British Indian Military Engneering Services (M.E.S.), was a recipient of the World War Two India War Medal, the Persian-Iraqi Force Medal, and the Burma Camplagn Medal.

 

Victorian Wall Letter Box of 1857

Although pillar boxes are the most common, they are not the only type of letter box. In 1857, to provide a more affordable, lower-capacity option for smaller towns and rural areas, wall-mounted boxes were introduced. These were initially small, rectangular boxes that could be mounted into existing walls or specially constructed brick pillars. This particular box is from the 1880s, you can tell this by the style of it. 

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Viking era sword was recovered from Lummelunda, Sweden.

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Coins Discovered dated to Abbasi Caliphate.

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Worlds Fastest Steam Engine

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Photo of the Sphinx in the late 1800s.

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The Crown of Bahadur Shah Zafar 1775-1862)

The Crown was crafted in the second quarter of the 19th century CE, most probably in Delhi or surrounding areas, by goldsmiths and jewelers. It is, strictly speaking, not a crown, but an article of headdress. the Aftermath of the Indian Mutiny of 1857 CE, and Delhi was recaptured from Indian freedom fighters by East India Company's Army on September 21, 1857 CE, Their atrocities and intimidation reached the end of tolerance. Emperor along with his two sons and grand son took shelter in Humayun's Tomb in Delhi. 

Mirza Ilahi Bux, a close associate of the ruler was forced to reveal where the ruler and others were hiding. At last emperor and his heirs surrendered to Major Hodson who took his captives back to Red Fort. On the way near Khooni Gate (Dharwaza), the major ordered Bahadur Shah Zafar's sons, Mirza Mughal and Mirza Khizer Khan, and his grandson, Mirza Abu Bakr, to get off the carriage and disrobe. 

He then shot them dead in cold blood and hung their bodies near the gate. The official end of the Mughal Empire was marked in Delhi by the auction of quantities of jewels and other valuable relics from Bahadur Shah’s court. Bahadur Shah (1775–1862 CE), was held prisoner in a dingy room of his ancestral fort during the summer and later exiled to Rangoon, Burma (Myanmar), where the last Mughal Emperor, died at 5am on Friday, November 7, 1862. He was given a hurried and ignominious burial in Rangoon. 

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A Neanderthal footprint preserved in the sediments of the Grotte di Toirano, Liguria,

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Liba Radij aged 17, Executed by the Nazis in 1943

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Jewish refugee granted entry into Palestine shortly before the creation of Israel.

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Electric Cannon uses no Gunpowder

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Another English experimenter, Dr. Wall, seeking the same thing, produces ultra-magnetic fields with a more simple apparatus. Dr. Wall simply charges electrostatic condensers and permits them to discharge their powerful currents into specially-made coils immersed in oil baths. Here also magnetic fields so powerful that they tear the coils to pieces have been produced. So great are these magnetic fields that they are capable of pulling iron nails out of shoes. While the magnetic effects produced by both of these experimenters are of very short duration, they could be employed to impart their terrible energy to steel shells. The time limit, which cannot exceed one one-hundredth of a second, is imposed be- cause of the powerful currents used. 

If these currents were permitted to flow through wire for a greater period of time, the wire would melt and temperatures greater than those existing in some of the hottest stars would be produced. To produce a magnetic gun-a silent Big- Bertha-it will only be necessary to arrange a series of powerful coils within the gun barrel. Each coil will have its own generator and the shell advancing through the barrel will automatically energize the coil just ahead of it. By the time the shell reaches the end of the barrel it will have attained a speed far in excess of the speeds plosives known. Now attainable with even the highest ex-Owing to the entire absence of internal. pressures these guns may be made of ordinary iron or even purely non-magnetic materials. 

The "magnetic explosions' will be initiated by the simple closing of a switch which will energize the first coil and snatch the shell from the breech in the first leg of its journey of destruction. The magnetic gun, pictured on this month's cover, is foreshadowed by achievements of two English experimenters. Powerful currents working through coils around the gun barrel exert a magnetic effect on the steel shell, pulling it through the barrel at tremendous speed. Each coil has its generator, and the shell advancing through the barrel will automatically energize the coil just ahead of it. A rotary switch could be employed to adapt the idea to machine guns.

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Initially assumed to be empty upon being sighted, when boarded, a spine-shivering sight awaited. Below the deck, they came across the entire crew, completely frozen.

The captain sat rooted, almost stoically, at the table in front of him with a pen still in hand and his log laid out before him.

Written there was the log’s last entry, dated November 11, 1762, and its last recorded position marked their location about 250 miles north of Alaska’s arctic coast.

The ghost ship had been adrift for thirteen years before its discovery, meandering aimlessly for hundreds of miles. Though it is a great story, there is no proof of whether the ship existed or not.