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Matiur Rahman (Template:Lang-bn) or M. Matiur Rahman (October 29, 1941 in Dhaka - August 20, 1971) was a Flight Lieutenant in the Pakistan Air Force when the Liberation War broke out. His date of birth is sometimes given as 29 November 1941.

For his attempt to defect from the Pakistan Air Force, he was decorated with the Bir Sreshtho award by Bangladesh which is the highest honor given. The Bangladesh Air Force's Air Base at Jessore is also named after him.

Education and career

He had received his primary education at Dhaka Collegiate School. Next he was admitted into PAF Public School, Sargodha in West Pakistan. After completing his twelfth class course there he entered Pakistan Air Force Academy. He was commissioned on 22 June 1963 in the 36th GD(P) Course and was posted at Risalpur, West Pakistan. He successfully completed the Jet Conversion Course in Karachi before he was appointed a Jet Pilot in Peshawar.

Death

On August 20, 1971 he attempted to hijack a T-33 trainer from Karachi, Pakistan to India in order to defect from the Pakistan Air Force and join the Liberation movement of Bangladesh. The T-33 aircraft was code-named 'Bluebird'. However, Matiur Rahman could not take the plane out of Pakistani territory. The plane crashed in Thatta, 40 kilometres near the Indian border because of the struggle to regain control of the plane by a Pakistani Air Force pilot, Rashid Minhas (a national hero of Pakistan). His body, which was found near the crash site, was buried at the military graveyard at Masroor Air Base. Matiur's widow, Milly, and his two infant daughters were imprisoned for a month by Pakistan Air Force, and were released on September 29, 1971.

Alternate theories

During the jostle, Motiur after realizing that the plane will crash due to the struggle, somehow pressed the eject button and Motiur was thrown out of the plane. Motiur had no parachute with him and, thus, plunged to his death.

Yawar A. Mazhar, a writer for Pakistan Military Consortium, relayed in 2004 that he spoke to retired PAF Group Captain Cecil Chaudhry about Minhas, and that he learned more details not generally known to the public. According to Mazhar, Chaudhry lead the immediate task of investigating the wreckage and writing the accident report. Chaudhry told Mazhar that he found the jet had hit the ground nose first, instantly killing Minhas in the front seat. Rahman's body, however, was not in the jet and the canopy was missing. Chaudhry searched the area and saw Rahman's body some distance behind the jet, the body found with severe abrasions from hitting the sand at high speed. Chaudhry thought that Minhas probably jettisoned the canopy causing Rahman to be thrown from the cockpit because he was not strapped in. Chaudhry felt that the jet was too close to the ground at that time, too far out of control for Minhas to be able to prevent the crash.

Grave transfer

After over 30 years of negotiations, Motiur's body was finally returned to Bangladesh on June 24, 2006 for a ceremonial and highly symbolic reburial in 2006. He was buried at the Martyred Intellectuals Graveyard, in Mirpur, Dhaka, with full military honours. His original burial in a nondescript grave in Pakistan had been a sore point between Bangladesh and Pakistan for decades.

See also

• Bir Sreshtho
• Bangladesh Liberation War

References

1. Informative article in banglapedia.org.
2. ^ Matiur's remains received in state honour, Daily Star, June 25, 2006.
3. Rahman, Milly, Bir Shreshtho Matiur Smarak Grantho, Agami Prokashoni, Dhaka, 2005. pages 70-73.
4. Bangladesh Liberation War 1971 virtual archive. "Bangladesh Liberation War 1971 Birshrestho Flight Lieutenant Motiur Rahman". Retrieved 23 March 2011.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
5. Mazhar, Yawar A. (September 1, 2004). "Rashid Minhas Story". Military History Archive. Pakistan Military Consortium. Retrieved January 31, 2012.

External links

• Efforts to bring back Matiur's body
• Article on Matuir
• Another article on the incident
• মুক্তিযুদ্ধ বিষয়ক মন্ত্রণালয়

v t e Bir Sreshtho
	Ruhul Amin Mohiuddin Jahangir Mostafa Kamal Hamidur Rahman Matiur Rahman Munshi Abdur Rouf Nur Mohammad Sheikh

Template:Persondata

• 1945 births
• 1971 deaths
• Bangladeshi people
• Bangladesh Liberation War
• Pakistan Air Force personnel
• Pakistani defectors