Page "Aircraft hijacking" Paragraph 13

A Pakistan Air Force T-33 trainer was hijacked on August 20, 1971 before Indo-Pakistani war of 1971 in Karachi when a Bengali instructor pilot, Flight Lieutenant Matiur Rahman, knocked out the young Pilot Officer Rashid Minhas with the intention of defecting to India with the plane and national secrets.

On regaining consciousness in mid-flight, Rashid Minhas struggled for flight control as well as relayed the news of his hijack to the PAF base.

In the end of the ensuing struggle he succeeded to crash his aircraft into the ground near Thatta on seeing no way to prevent the hijack and the defection.

He was posthumously awarded Pakistan's highest military award Nishan-e-Haider ( Sign of the Lion ) for his act of bravery.

Matiur Rahman was awarded Bangladesh's highest military award, Bir Sreshtho, for his attempt to defect to join the civil war in east.