Mushaf Ali Mir
Encyclopedia
Air Chief Marshal
Mushaf Ali Mir (March 5, 1947 – February 20, 2003) was four-star general of the Pakistan Air Force who served as the chief of air staff of the Pakistan Air Force
from 20 November 2000 until his death on February 20, 2003 when the PAF Fokker F-27 he was traveling in, crashed near Kohat
, Pakistan
. He was succeeded by ACM Kaleem Saadat
.
, and was one of nine children of a middle class Kashmiri
family of Shia Muslim origin. His father, Farzand Ali Mir, was a calligrapher who died when Mushaf was young. He went to Government Wattan Islamia High School, Lahore.
), and his NDC course from National Defence College
, Islamabad
.
His staff appointments include: Director Operations, Assistant Chief of Air Staff (Plans) at the Air Headquarters, Chief Project Director of Project Falcon (F-16) and Green Project Flash (Mirage 2000-5). His final assignment before promotion to CAS was Chairman of the Pakistan Aeronautical Complex
Board at Kamra
.
to become the 16th Chief of Air Staff on November 20, 2000.
During his tenure as Air chief, the PAF's F-6
aircraft were retired from service. Some of them were given to the Bangladesh Air Force
The official cause of crash was given to be pilot error amid bad weather conditions.
, the death of Mushaf Ali Mir was not an accident but an act of sabotage. The author claims in his book Why America Slept: The Failure to Prevent 9/11, that Osama bin Laden
struck a deal with Pakistani Inter-Services Intelligence
(ISI) through Mushaf Ali Mir in 1996 to get protection, arms and supplies for Al-Qaeda
. The meeting was blessed by the Saudi's through Prince Turki bin Faisal Al Saud, the then intelligence chief. However, after the September 11 attacks on the United States in 2001, and reversal of Pakistani and Saudi stances favoring Taliban and al-Qaeda
, the three Saudi princes associated with the deals died within days and seven months after that Mushaf Ali Mir's plane crashed near the Pakistan-Afghan border. Prince Turki bin Faisal, on the other hand was removed as intelligence chief and sent as Ambassador to United Kingdom during the same time. However, no evidence has been brought forward to conclusively prove Posner's account of events. The claims made by Posner are largely unsupported by physical evidence. The claim of Mushaf Ali Mir being an intermediary for Al-Qaeda is also unlikely given the fact that Mir was regarded as a modernist and unsympathetic towards the ideology of Al-Qaeda
, a Sunni organization.
Air Chief Marshal
Air chief marshal is a senior 4-star air-officer rank which originated in and continues to be used by the Royal Air Force...
Mushaf Ali Mir (March 5, 1947 – February 20, 2003) was four-star general of the Pakistan Air Force who served as the chief of air staff of the Pakistan Air Force
Pakistan Air Force
The Pakistan Air Force is the leading air arm of the Pakistan Armed Forces and is primarily tasked with the aerial defence of Pakistan with a secondary role of providing air support to the Pakistan Army and the Pakistan Navy. The PAF also has a tertiary role of providing strategic air transport...
from 20 November 2000 until his death on February 20, 2003 when the PAF Fokker F-27 he was traveling in, crashed near Kohat
Kohat
Kohat is a medium sized town in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province of Pakistan. It is located at 33°35'13N 71°26'29E with an altitude of 489 metres and is the capital of Kohat District. The town centres around a British-era fort, various bazaars, and a military cantonment. A British-built narrow gauge...
, Pakistan
Pakistan
Pakistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan is a sovereign state in South Asia. It has a coastline along the Arabian Sea and the Gulf of Oman in the south and is bordered by Afghanistan and Iran in the west, India in the east and China in the far northeast. In the north, Tajikistan...
. He was succeeded by ACM Kaleem Saadat
Kaleem Saadat
Air Chief Marshal Kaleem Saadat Rana, NI, , is a retired four-star general who was the Chief of Air Staff of the Pakistan Air Force from 2003 to 2006...
.
Personal life
Mushaf Ali Mir was born in LahoreLahore
Lahore is the capital of the Pakistani province of Punjab and the second largest city in the country. With a rich and fabulous history dating back to over a thousand years ago, Lahore is no doubt Pakistan's cultural capital. One of the most densely populated cities in the world, Lahore remains a...
, and was one of nine children of a middle class Kashmiri
Kashmiri people
The Kashmiri people are a Dardic linguistic group living in Kashmir Valley in Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir and parts of the Pakistani territory of Azad Kashmir who speak the Kashmiri language...
family of Shia Muslim origin. His father, Farzand Ali Mir, was a calligrapher who died when Mushaf was young. He went to Government Wattan Islamia High School, Lahore.
Initial military training
Mir was commissioned in the PAF on January 21, 1968 in 45th GD(P) Course. He was a graduate of Flying Instructors School (FIS), and Combat Commanders School (CCS). He did his staff college course, PAF Staff College (now PAF Air War CollegePAF Air War College
PAF Air War College is the Pakistan Air Force academic establishment providing training and education primarily to the mid-career officers of PAF as well as to limited number of officers from Pakistan Navy, Pakistan Army and officers of various Allied forces...
), and his NDC course from National Defence College
National Defence University, Islamabad
The National Defense University is an institution of higher education funded by the Ministry of Defence of Government of Pakistan, intended to facilitate high-level training, education, and the development of national security strategy...
, Islamabad
Islamabad
Islamabad is the capital of Pakistan and the tenth largest city in the country. Located within the Islamabad Capital Territory , the population of the city has grown from 100,000 in 1951 to 1.7 million in 2011...
.
Command and staff appointments
Mushaf's key command appointments include Officer Commanding, CCS Mirage Squadron; Officer Commanding, No. 33 Wing at PAF Base Minhas; Base Commander, PAF Base Sargodha (now called PAF Base Mushaf); and Air Officer Commanding, Southern Air Command.His staff appointments include: Director Operations, Assistant Chief of Air Staff (Plans) at the Air Headquarters, Chief Project Director of Project Falcon (F-16) and Green Project Flash (Mirage 2000-5). His final assignment before promotion to CAS was Chairman of the Pakistan Aeronautical Complex
Pakistan Aeronautical Complex
The Pakistan Aeronautical Complex is a facility used to service, assemble and manufacture aircraft for the Pakistani Armed Forces...
Board at Kamra
Kamra
Kamra is located in Attock District in the mountainous north of the Punjab, Pakistan. The Pakistan Aeronautical Complex and PAF's Minhas Airbase are located in Kamra. It is the biggest air force base in whole of Pakistan...
.
Chief of Air Staff
ACM Mushaf Mir superseded five senior Air Marshals to become the Chief of Air Staff. Those air marshals were, Muhammad Farooq Qari, Vice Chief of Air Staff; Zahid Anis, DCAS (Operations); Qazi Javed Ahmed, DCAS (Personnel); Pervez Iqbal Mirza, AOC Southern Air Command; and Riazuddin Shaikh, DCAS (Administration), all of whom sought premature retirement. He was promoted by General Pervez MusharrafPervez Musharraf
Pervez Musharraf , is a retired four-star general who served as the 13th Chief of Army Staff and tenth President of Pakistan as well as tenth Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee. Musharraf headed and led an administrative military government from October 1999 till August 2007. He ruled...
to become the 16th Chief of Air Staff on November 20, 2000.
During his tenure as Air chief, the PAF's F-6
Shenyang J-6
The Shenyang J-6 was the Chinese-built version of the Soviet MiG-19 'Farmer' fighter aircraft.-Design and development:...
aircraft were retired from service. Some of them were given to the Bangladesh Air Force
Bangladesh Air Force
The Bangladesh Air Force , is the air arm of the Bangladesh Armed Forces. Bangladesh Air Force currently employs more than 22,000 personnel including 600+ Pilots.-History:...
Death in the air crash
On February 20, 2003, the Pakistani Air Chief died along with his wife Bilquis Mir and all other 15 officers, when their Fokker F-27 crashed during a routine flight to PAF Base Kohat. The casualties included other high ranking officials of the Air Force including two Principal Staff Officers; Air Vice Marshal Abdul Razzaq, DCAS (Training) and Air Vice Marshal Saleem Nawaz, DCAS (Administration) and all of Air Chief's personal staff officers including Air Commodore Syed Javaid Sabir, Secretary to CAS, Air Commodore Rizwanullah Khan, PSO to CAS and Group Captain Aftab Cheema, APSO to CAS, Wing Commander Syed Tabassam Abbas, ADC to CAS. The casualties also included the pilots Squadron Leader Mumtaz Kiani, Squadron Leader Ahmed Yousaf, and Squadron Leader Abdul Rab; and the staff Senior Technician Khan Muhammad, Senior Technician Ghazanfar Ali, Corporal Technician Muhammad Ashraf, Corporal Technician Fayyaz, Corporal Technician Khush Kadam Shah and Corporal Technician Amjad Pervez.The official cause of crash was given to be pilot error amid bad weather conditions.
Conspiracy theories
According to investigative journalist Gerald PosnerGerald Posner
Gerald Posner is an investigative journalist and author of several books, including Case Closed: Lee Harvey Oswald and the Assassination of JFK which explores the John F...
, the death of Mushaf Ali Mir was not an accident but an act of sabotage. The author claims in his book Why America Slept: The Failure to Prevent 9/11, that Osama bin Laden
Osama bin Laden
Osama bin Mohammed bin Awad bin Laden was the founder of the militant Islamist organization Al-Qaeda, the jihadist organization responsible for the September 11 attacks on the United States and numerous other mass-casualty attacks against civilian and military targets...
struck a deal with Pakistani Inter-Services Intelligence
Inter-Services Intelligence
The Directorate for Inter-Services Intelligence , is Pakistan's premier intelligence agency, responsible for providing critical national security intelligence assessment to the Government of Pakistan...
(ISI) through Mushaf Ali Mir in 1996 to get protection, arms and supplies for Al-Qaeda
Al-Qaeda
Al-Qaeda is a global broad-based militant Islamist terrorist organization founded by Osama bin Laden sometime between August 1988 and late 1989. It operates as a network comprising both a multinational, stateless army and a radical Sunni Muslim movement calling for global Jihad...
. The meeting was blessed by the Saudi's through Prince Turki bin Faisal Al Saud, the then intelligence chief. However, after the September 11 attacks on the United States in 2001, and reversal of Pakistani and Saudi stances favoring Taliban and al-Qaeda
Al-Qaeda
Al-Qaeda is a global broad-based militant Islamist terrorist organization founded by Osama bin Laden sometime between August 1988 and late 1989. It operates as a network comprising both a multinational, stateless army and a radical Sunni Muslim movement calling for global Jihad...
, the three Saudi princes associated with the deals died within days and seven months after that Mushaf Ali Mir's plane crashed near the Pakistan-Afghan border. Prince Turki bin Faisal, on the other hand was removed as intelligence chief and sent as Ambassador to United Kingdom during the same time. However, no evidence has been brought forward to conclusively prove Posner's account of events. The claims made by Posner are largely unsupported by physical evidence. The claim of Mushaf Ali Mir being an intermediary for Al-Qaeda is also unlikely given the fact that Mir was regarded as a modernist and unsympathetic towards the ideology of Al-Qaeda
Al-Qaeda
Al-Qaeda is a global broad-based militant Islamist terrorist organization founded by Osama bin Laden sometime between August 1988 and late 1989. It operates as a network comprising both a multinational, stateless army and a radical Sunni Muslim movement calling for global Jihad...
, a Sunni organization.