Living Eagle: Saiful Azam [ 4 min read ]
Saiful Azam was recognized by the American Air Force as one of the 22 Living Eagles of the world even as the only Bengali pilot to show indomitable bravery and courage in the air.
“Great minds are immortal”
Saiful Azam is the name of a hero who realm the skies of the Indian subcontinent in the twentieth century, a man who is fearless and indomitable. He was recognized by the American Air Force as one of the 22 Living Eagles of the world even as the only Bengali pilot to show indomitable bravery and courage in the air. This unbeatable hero was born in the middle of the twentieth century in 1941, in the village of Khagarbaria in the Pabna upazila of East Bengal (now Bangladesh). He spent the sweetest time of his childhood in Kolkata before the partition of Pakistan and also for his father's work there.
Since Bengali speaking people lived in East Pakistan (now Bangladesh), Saiful and his family settled in East Pakistan as permanent residents. East Pakistan lagged behind West Pakistan (now Pakistan) in all respects. Even education was not a good option here. In view of this, there was no educational institution in East Pakistan (Now Bangladesh) to receive higher education, so after completing his secondary education, he went to West Pakistan (present-day Pakistan) to pursue higher education. From a young age, his dream was to become a pilot and rule the sky like a hawk. He was admitted to the Pakistan Air Force Cadet College in 1958 and after 24 months of his study, he was able to reach his desired goal.
He finally joined the Pakistan Air Force in 1970 as a General Duty Pilot and was able to make his dream a reality. The early stages of his hawk-like dream began with the Cessna T-37, a state-of-the-art training aircraft of the then US military. Moreover, he later won the highest position for demonstrating exceptional skills in higher training on the F-6 Sabre from the famous Air Force Training Center in Arizona, USA. Based on his outstanding skills, he first joined the East Pakistan Air Force base in Dhaka in 1963 and later became a senior trainer in T-33 at Masroor Air Base in Karachi. In the Ind-Pak war of 1965, Saiful Azam showed indomitable bravery and shot down the aircraft of Indian Air Force Flight Officer Vijay Mayadev and won the third highest military medal of Pakistan, Sitara-i-Jurat. His unconquerable courage and skill have taken him beyond the borders of the country to foreign lands.
Saiful Azam was the only Bengali pilot to be called upon by the Arabs in the Arab-Israeli war when the Israeli air force destroyed the Arab warplanes one by one.On the other hand, just when the Israeli air force was on the verge of crushing Iraq, this brave Bengali arrived on the battlefield in the guise of a hero. He bravely flew warplanes for Iraq. Fighting in the guise of a hero, he first shot down the state-of-the-art fighter aircraft of Israeli pilot Captain Gideon Dror.
Later, Captain Golan's bomber was shot down and as a Bengali, he attacked two different places in a span of two days in the court of the world and set a precedent by destroying 4 warplanes which no one has been able to break. He was stationed in West Pakistan during the war of liberation in 1971.Like I said before, the government of Pakistan lagged behind East Pakistan in most of all respects. So 1971, during the liberation war of this Bengali there was no warplane. Seeing this situation in his own country, this patriot planned to hijack a war plane from West Pakistan and bring it to Bangladesh. He confessed to having a vocal cords in West Pakistan during the War of Liberation, and was temporarily banned from flying. Because the West Pakistanis somehow never wanted a world-renowned pilot like Saiful Azam to fight against them. According to the plan, when Birshreshtha Matiur Rahman flew with a T-33 fighter jet and crashed near the border of Bangladesh, the plan was completely ruined.
The remarkable super hero Saiful Azam made a significant contribution to the politics of Bangladesh after the independence of the country. He was elected Member of Parliament from Pabna 3 constituency on behalf of Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) in the fifth and sixth national elections of Bangladesh. This legend breathed his last on 14 June, 2020 at the Dhaka (CMH) Hospital. In his outstanding achievement, he will live forever in the hearts of millions of people around the world in the guise of a flying brave hawk.
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