Today is the 13th anniversary of the 1965 war hero M.M. Alam’s death.

Today, Wednesday, is the 13th anniversary of the death of Muhammad Mahmood Alam, often known as M.M. Alam, the war hero of 1965.

Alam’s outstanding performance during the 1965 Pak-India War while stationed in Sargodha is the main reason he is regarded as a national hero in Pakistan. He flew his F-86 Sabre jet and participated in several dogfights during this conflict. During the aerial combat, he killed nine Indian Hawker Hunter jets and injured two more.

Alam set a global record on September 7, 1965, when it shot down five Indian aircraft in less than a minute and the final four in less than thirty seconds. In all, nine aircraft were shot down during the battle.

Alam, the oldest of eleven siblings, was born on July 6, 1935, into a well-educated family in Calcutta, British India. After Pakistan was established in 1947, the family moved from Calcutta to eastern Bengal, which later became East Pakistan. He enlisted in the RPAF (now PAF) in 1952 and received his commission on October 2, 1953.

Following East Pakistan’s separation in 1971, his family relocated to West Pakistan.

Alam moved to Karachi after retiring from the PAF as an air commodore in 1982. On March 18, 2013, Alam passed away in Karachi at the age of 77.