ISLAMABAD: Legendary war hero MM Alam’s record of shooting down five Indianwar planes in less than a minute remains unbeaten. Alam, nicknamed as‘Little Dragon’ popularly, while piloting an F-86 Sabre, shot down fiveIndian war planes in less than a minute during 1965 Pak-India war andaltogether, downed nine war planes in the aerial fighting.

MM Alam was the first ever fighter pilot for PAF, listed on top in the hallof famers list at the PAF Museum in Karachi. Alam is considered as anational hero for Pakistan, most significantly, for his remarkable show ofbrilliance in the war of 1965 he was awarded the Sitara-e-Jurat and alsothe BAR medal, private news channel reported.

The war hero was born on July 6, 1935, in Calcutta, India and was theeldest of 11 siblings. No one in his family before him had been part of themilitary, and in fact, he joined the armed forces against his father’s will.

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

Here, MM Alam made the unforgettable history by knocking down nine IndianFighter Jets “Hawker Hunters” in air to air combat despite Hawker Huntersuperiority over F-86. He shot down as he sets an unbeaten world record bydowning five Indian aircraft in thirty seconds. Alam announced to the radarcontroller that he had shot down nine IAF Air crafts and when RadioPakistan announced his brilliance, people of Pakistan started rising theslogans of “Allah o Akbar”.

The Air Force legend was battling illness since December 2012, and wasadmitted to Pakistan Naval Station Shifa Hospital in Karachi. After aprotracted illness, Alam died in Karachi on March 18, 2013. He was 77. Heretired in 1982 as an Air Commodore. – APP