Nation marks war hero MM Alam's sixth death anniversary

KARACHI: The sixth death anniversary of national hero Muhammad Mahmood Alam (MM Alam), who valiantly downed five military jets of the Indian Air Force in less than a minute, is being observed today.

Paying tribute to the war hero, Foreign Office spokesperson Dr Muhammad Faisal tweeted: “Nation observes sixth death anniversary of national hero MM Alam, who downed five enemy planes within a minute during 1965 war, flying his Saber-86 jet. His flying skills, precision and professionalism remain unparalleled in the history of airforce.”

A Pakistan Air Force (PAF) pilot, MM Alam while piloting an F-86 Sabre, shot down five Indian war planes in less than a minute during 1965 Pak-India war and altogether, downed nine war planes in the aerial fighting.

He pursued his dream of becoming a pilot in 1952 when he entered the air force and became a commissioned officer on 2nd October 1953. It was in the 1965 war with India that MM Alam proudly defended his country in the skies and decimated Indian airplanes one after the other.

The war hero was born on July 6, 1935, in Calcutta, India and was the eldest of 11 siblings.

No one in his family before him had been part of the military, and in fact, he joined the armed forces against his father’s will.

He is popularly known as MM Alam and was nicknamed ‘Little Dragon’. He retired in 1982 as an Air Commodore. He breathed his last on 18th march 2013 in Karachi due to lung disease