1965 war hero MM Alam being remembered on 85th birth anniversary

KARACHI: The 1965 War Hero Muhammad Mahmood Alam, popularly known as M M Alam is being remembered today on his 85th birth anniversary.

The war hero was born on July 6, 1935, in Calcutta, India but was raised in Bengal. He graduated from Government High School in Dhaka in 1951 and joined the then Pakistan Air Force in 1952. His family moved to Pakistan after formation of Bangladesh in 1971.

The legendary war hero MM Alam’s record of shooting down five Indian war planes in less than a minute remains unbeaten. Nicknamed ‘Little Dragon’, Alam was piloting an F-86 Sabre when he shot down five Indian war planes in less than a minute during 1965 Pak-India war. He downed nine Indian planes together in the aerial combat.

MM Alam was the first ever fighter pilot listed on top in the hall of famers list at the PAF Museum in Karachi. Alam is considered a national hero for his remarkable show of brilliance in the 1965 war. He was awarded the ‘Sitara-e-Jurat’ (The star of courage).

In 7th September 1965, when India started 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 flew over the skies of Sargodha to defeat the enemies who entered Pakistani air space.

MM Alam made history by knocking down nine Indian Hawker Hunters in air-to-air combat. He set an unbeaten world record by downing five Indian aircraft in thirty seconds. Alam died in Karachi on March 18, 2013 at the age of 77. He retired in 1982 as an Air Commodore.