Najeeb Ahmad Khan, commonly known as 8-Pass Charlie, was a Pakistani bomber pilot who raided the Adampur Airbase in

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a number of times during the

Indo-Pakistani War of 1965 The Indo-Pakistani War of 1965 or the Second Kashmir War was a culmination of skirmishes that took place between April 1965 and September 1965 between Pakistan and India. The conflict began following Pakistan's Operation Gibraltar, which was d ...

, notably starting a series of

airstrikes An airstrike, air strike or air raid is an offensive operation carried out by aircraft. Air strikes are delivered from aircraft such as blimps, balloons, fighters, heavy bombers, ground attack aircraft, attack helicopters and drones. The offici ...

on the base by a solo raid. He was named "8-Pass Charlie" by his impressed Indian adversaries at the Adampur base as he used to make eight passes, one for each bomb, on selected targets with improving efficiency instead of safely dropping all of his bomb load and exiting. He is also known to have had expertise in disguising his attack run by confusing anti-aircraft gunners by cutting

throttle A throttle is the mechanism by which fluid flow is managed by constriction or obstruction. An engine's power can be increased or decreased by the restriction of inlet gases (by the use of a throttle), but usually decreased. The term ''throttle' ...

s before entering a

dive Diving most often refers to: * Diving (sport), the sport of jumping into deep water * Underwater diving, human activity underwater for recreational or occupational purposes Diving or Dive may also refer to: Sports * Dive (American football), a ...

Early life and education

Najib was born in Kaimganj to Israil Ahmad Khan of the

Afridi The Afrīdī ( ps, اپريدی ''Aprīdai'', plur. ''Aprīdī''; ur, آفریدی) are a Pashtun tribe present in Pakistan, with substantial numbers in Afghanistan. The Afridis are most dominant in Pakistan's Federally Administered Tribal ...

tribe of

Pashtuns Pashtuns (, , ; ps, پښتانه, ), also known as Pakhtuns or Pathans, are an Iranian ethnic group who are native to the geographic region of Pashtunistan in the present-day countries of Afghanistan and Pakistan. They were historically r ...

, from the

Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (; ps, خېبر پښتونخوا; Urdu, Hindko: خیبر پختونخوا) commonly abbreviated as KP or KPK, is one of the four provinces of Pakistan. Located in the northwestern region of the country, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa ...

province of Pakistan, on 24 August 1933. He was the older brother of Jamal Ahmed Khan. Najib received his primary education from Muslim High School,

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and upon migrating to

Pakistan Pakistan ( ur, ), officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan ( ur, , label=none), is a country in South Asia. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by population, fifth-most populous country, with a population of almost 24 ...

in 1949, where he settled in

Lahore Lahore ( ; pnb, ; ur, ) is the second List of cities in Pakistan by population, most populous city in Pakistan after Karachi and 26th List of largest cities, most populous city in the world, with a population of over 13 million. It is th ...

and completed his

higher education Higher education is tertiary education leading to award of an academic degree. Higher education, also called post-secondary education, third-level or tertiary education, is an optional final stage of formal learning that occurs after compl ...

Career

Najib joined the Pakistan Air Force's 17th GD(P) course at Pakistan Air Force Academy in Risalpur and graduated on 6 June 1954. He was then posted to the PAF's No. 2 Squadron for Fighter Conversion Course. His brilliant performance in the conversion course led him to be selected for Advanced Jet Conversion Courses in the

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. On his return to Pakistan, he served in various PAF squadrons. He was amongst the few pilots who were selected to fly the newly inducted

B-57 Canberra The Martin B-57 Canberra is an American-built, twin-engined tactical bomber and reconnaissance aircraft that entered service with the United States Air Force (USAF) in 1953. The B-57 is a license-built version of the British English Electric ...

bombers. In 1962, he was again sent to the United States for more Advanced Training Courses and after returning, he was posted as the

Officer commanding The officer commanding (OC), also known as the officer in command or officer in charge (OiC), is the commander of a sub-unit or minor unit (smaller than battalion size), principally used in the United Kingdom and Commonwealth. In other countries, t ...

(OC) of the 31st Tactical Attack wing's elite No. 7 Squadron which was based at Mauripur Airbase. In 1969, he was appointed as the

Base commander The base commander is the officer assigned to command a military base. In the United States armed forces, a base commander is generally at least an O-6 grade officer, which means colonel (Army, Air Force, Marines) or captain (Navy, Coast Guard ...

PAF Base Malir PAF (Pakistan Air Force) Base Malir is a non-flying Pakistan Air Force Base. The Malir base was originally built by British during the World War II as the last line of defense against the Wehrmacht. After the war, it was used as the processing ar ...

and later commanded the PAF's No. 15 Squadron "Cobras". During his tenure with the Squadron, Najeeb also assisted

Chuck Yeager Brigadier General Charles Elwood Yeager ( , February 13, 1923December 7, 2020) was a United States Air Force officer, flying ace, and record-setting test pilot who in October 1947 became the first pilot in history confirmed to have exceeded the ...

on a flight to Mount Godwin Austin and took some memorable pictures of him in a PAF F-86F over the mountain. In 1974, he attended Joint Warfare Courses at the UK and also graduated from

PAF Staff College PAF Air War College Institute 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 ...

. As his last deployment, Najeeb was appointed as Pakistan's

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until finally

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from the PAF on 20 June 1981.

1965 War

Najib was serving as the commander of the No. 7 Squadron during the

. Throughout the war, Najeeb participated in 17 strike missions deep inside enemy territory.

B-57 raids

During the war, the bomber wing of the PAF was attacking the concentration of airfields in north India. In order to avoid enemy fighter-bombers, the B-57s operated from several different airbases, taking off and returning to different bases to hop and avoid being attacked. The B-57 bombers would arrive over their targets in a stream at intervals of about 15 minutes, which led to achieving a major disruption of the overall IAF effort."PAF and the three wars."
''defencejournal.com'', 2001. Retrieved: 5 July 2010.

1971 War

During the 1971 war, Najib served as the PSO of the PAF's Commander-in-chief, Air Marshal

Abdul Rahim Khan Air Marshal Abdur Rahim Khan ( ur, ; 25 October 1925 – 28 February 1990) was a three-star air officer who served as the last Commander-in-Chief of the Pakistan Air Force under President Yahya Khan, from 1969 until 1972. In 1972, Air- ...

Named by adversaries

The name was assigned to this unknown pilot by his impressed

Indian Indian or Indians may refer to: Peoples South Asia * Indian people, people of Indian nationality, or people who have an Indian ancestor ** Non-resident Indian, a citizen of India who has temporarily emigrated to another country * South Asia ...

adversaries at the Adampur base, and appears to be derived from his daring routine of making eight passes in bombing runs during every air raid over the alerted airbase to bomb selected targets with each 500 lb bomb in the moonlight, "and tried to carry out an effective attack each time", instead of dropping his entire bomb-load of 4,000 lbs during the first pass which would have allowed a safer exit for the aggressor aircraft over initial defences.

Kills

One of 8-Pass Charlie's confirmed kills is an

Indian Air Force The Indian Air Force (IAF) is the air force, air arm of the Indian Armed Forces. Its complement of personnel and aircraft assets ranks third amongst the air forces of the world. Its primary mission is to secure Indian airspace and to conduct ...

MiG 21 The Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-21 (russian: Микоян и Гуревич МиГ-21; NATO reporting name: Fishbed) is a supersonic jet aircraft, jet fighter aircraft, fighter and interceptor aircraft, designed by the Mikoyan, Mikoyan-Gurevich OKB, De ...

s on Operational Readiness Platform (ORP) which was about to take off when he executed the first raid on the Adampur airbase at 2200 hours with his lone B-57 on

6 September Events Pre-1600 * 394 – Battle of the Frigidus: Roman emperor Theodosius I defeats and kills Eugenius the usurper. His Frankish ''magister militum'' Arbogast escapes but commits suicide two days later. *1492 – Christopher Col ...

, 1965.

Technique

In addition to his routine of making eight passes over Adampur, Najeeb also seemed to have had a second routine of conducting his raids thirty minutes after moonrise. Paddy Earle, an Indian fighter pilot, paid tribute to the PAF pilot by saying:

I have the utmost respect for the Pakistani Canberra bloke who loved to ruin the equanimity of our dreary lives! 8-Pass Charlie was an ace, but he had this nasty habit of turning up about 30 min. after moonrise, just as we were downing our first drink! Seriously, he was a cool dude and a professional of the highest order. To disguise the direction of his run, he used to cut throttles before entering a dive and by the time the ack-ack opened up he was beneath the umbrella of fire. After dropping his load he'd apply full throttle and climb out above the umbrella.

Sitara-e-Jurat citation

For his inspiring leadership, courage and other actions displayed during the 1965 war, Najeeb was awarded the

Sitara-e-Jurat Sitara-e-Jurat (, Star of Courage) is the third highest military award of Pakistan. It was established in 1957 after Pakistan became a republic; however, it was instituted retrospectively back to 1947. It is awarded for gallantry or distinguishe ...

, the third highest gallantry award of

. His Sitara-e-Jurat citation read as follows:

Personal life

Najeeb married Surraya on 14 October 1964 in

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

. The couple has a son named Babar (b. 1971). Soon after retiring from the PAF, he took residence in

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by to ...

and continues to live there with his family. Najeeb's younger brother, Air Chief Marshal Jamal Ahmed Khan, later went on to command the Pakistan Air Force. Both of them are the only brothers to be awarded the