Military leadership pays tribute to MM Alam on 11th anniversary

Rawalpindi: The military leadership, including the Chairman Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee (CJCSC), paid tribute to the 1965 war hero Air Commodore Muhammad Mehmood Alam known as MM Alam on his 11th death anniversary.

Services Chiefs General Asim Munir, Air Marshal Zaheer Babar Sindhu and Naval Chief Admiral Naveed Ashraf also paid tribute to Air Commodore Muhammad Mehmood Alam.

Air Commodore MM Alam shot down five Indian Air Force (IAF) jets in less than a minute on September 7 in the 1965 war.

MM Alam's record of shooting down five aircraft in one minute remains unbeaten till date. He also destroyed nine enemy aircraft and damaged two aircraft in 11 days during the war.

He was the first-ever fighter pilot for Pakistan Air Force (PAF), listed on top in the hall of Famers list at the PAF Museum in Karachi.

Alam is considered a national hero for Pakistan, for his remarkable show of brilliance in the war of 1965 he was awarded the ‘Sitara-e-Jurat’ and his record of shooting down five Indian war planes in less than a minute remains unbeaten.

He was born on July 06, 1935, in Calcutta, India. No one in his family before him had been part of the military.

Moreover, he joined the armed forces against his father’s will.

Back in 1965, when India started the war in the late mist dark night, Alam who was the first commanding officer of the first squadron of Assaults Mirage III, took his F-86 Sabre jet plane equipped with AIM-9 sidewinder missiles and fly over the skies of Sargodha to defeat the enemies who entered in Pakistani Air Space.

He retired in 1982 as an Air Commodore.

The Air Force legend was battling illness since December 2012 and was admitted to Pakistan Naval Station Shifa Hospital in Karachi, following which he died in Karachi on March 18, 2013, at the age of 77.