To mark Defence Day and remember the shaheeds, former cricketer and philanthropist Shahid Afridi visited PAF’s Fighter Pilot Shaheed Marium Mukhtar’s house.
Taking to Twitter, Afridi shared pictures from his visit saying that “it was an amazing experience to hear about her bravery and courage, she will always be remembered.”
Born in May 1992, in Karachi, Mukhtiar hailed from a military family. Her father, a retired colonel of the Pakistan Army, inspired her to join the armed forces.
Marium graduated as a fighter pilot in 2007 with seven other female Pakistanis. She was on a routine training flight with her instructor Saqib Abbasi when her jet developed a fault and crashed at Kandian area in Bhakra near Mianwali on November 24, 2015. Even though Marium and her co-pilot ejected before the aircraft crashed, she suffered serious injuries which eventually lead to her demise.
The government of Pakistan posthumously honoured Marium with the Tamgha-e-Basalat (Medal of Good Conduct). A telefilm, Ek Thi Marium, starring Sanam Baloch in the lead was also made on her life.
Afridi on August 28 had appealed to his fellow countrymen to respond to Prime Minister Imran Khan’s call for Kashmir Hour and had announced then that he will visit the home of a shaheed on September 6.
