Pakistan Air Force Base Minhas is a

Pakistan Air Force The Pakistan Air Force (PAF) (; ) is the aerial warfare branch of the Pakistan Armed Forces, tasked primarily with the aerial defence of Pakistan, with a secondary role of providing air support to the Pakistan Army and Pakistan Navy when re ...

Airbase located at (Kamra Cantt)

Attock District Attock District ( Punjabi/Urdu), known as Campbellpur District during British Raj, is a district, located on the Pothohar Plateau, in north western Punjab, Pakistan; created in April 1904. According to 2023 Pakistani census population of Att ...

Punjab Punjab (; ; also romanised as Panjāb or Panj-Āb) is a geopolitical, cultural, and historical region in South Asia. It is located in the northwestern part of the Indian subcontinent, comprising areas of modern-day eastern Pakistan and no ...

, Pakistan. It was named in the honour of

Pilot Officer Pilot officer (Plt Off or P/O) is a junior officer rank used by some air forces, with origins from the Royal Air Force. The rank is used by air forces of many countries that have historical British influence. Pilot officer is the lowest ran ...

Rashid Minhas Pilot Officer Rashid Minhas () was a Pakistani fighter pilot and the fifth recipient of Pakistan's highest military award, the Nishan-e-Haider. Minhas was the first and only officer from the Pakistan Air Force to receive the Nishan-e-Haider, ...

, who was awarded the

Nishan-e-Haider Nishan-e-Haider (NH; or 'Emblem of the Lion') is the highest military gallantry award of Pakistan. The Nishan-e-Haider is awarded only to members of the Pakistan Armed Forces. It recognises the highest acts of extraordinary bravery in the f ...

for valor in the Indo-Pakistani War of 1971.

Pakistan Aeronautical Complex The Pakistan Aeronautical Complex (PAC) is a major defense contractor and an aerospace manufacturer headquartered in Kamra, Punjab, Pakistan. The Pakistan Aeronautical Complex is one of the largest defense contractors in aerospace and milit ...

is located in ''Minhas Airbase'' which manufactures aircraft like CAC/PAC JF-17 Thunder,

PAC MFI-17 Mushshak The PAC MFI-17 Mushshak (, ) is a license-built fixed-gear basic trainer aircraft manufactured by PAC. An improved version of the Saab Safari (MFI-15), the MFI-17 is manufactured in Kamra, Pakistan, by Pakistan Aeronautical Complex (PAC). Bui ...

Hongdu JL-8 The Hongdu JL-8 (Nanchang JL-8), also known as the Karakorum-8 or K-8 for short, is a two-seat intermediate jet trainer and light attack aircraft designed by China Nanchang Aircraft Manufacturing Corporation and Pakistan Aeronautical Complex. ...

. It also rebuilds aircraft like the ''Dassault Mirage'' and ''Chengdu F-7''. Currently, PAF Base Minhas is equipped with

JF-17 The CAC/PAC JF-17 Thunder (), or FC-1 ''Xiaolong'' (), is a fourth-generation, lightweight, single-engine, multirole combat aircraft developed jointly by the Pakistan Aeronautical Complex (PAC) and Chengdu Aircraft Corporation (CAC) of China. ...

aircraft operated by No.16 Squadron also called "Black Panthers".

2012 terrorist attack

On 16 August 2012, nine Tehrik-e-Taliban militants assaulted PAF Base Minhas at about 2 am. After a pitched battle all nine attackers were killed while two Pakistani security officials also died. The base commander, Air Commodore Muhammad Azam, was reported wounded in the attack as well. The militants also destroyed one Saab 2000 Erieye plane and damaged one or two others.

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* at World Aero Data Minhas Attock District Military installations in Punjab, Pakistan {{Pakistan-airport-stub

2012 terrorist attack

See also

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