PAF female fighter pilot Marium laid to rest with military honours

KARACHI: One of Pakistan's few female fighter jet pilots – Flying Officer Marium Mukhtiar who was killed in a training crash – was laid to rest on Wednesday with full military honour at an air force base in Karachi.

Flying Officer Marium Mukhtiar and Squadron Leader Saqib Abbasi were flying a training mission on an FT-7PG aircraft and encountered a "serious in-flight emergency" during the final stages, the Pakistan Air Force (PAF) said in a statement on Tuesday.

The PAF said that she was the first of its women pilots to "embrace martyrdom".

"Flying Officer Marium embraced martyrdom and became the first lady pilot from PAF to attain this great honour," it said.

The crash took place in Kundian, Mianwali district, about 175 kilometres southwest of Islamabad.

In 2006, seven Pakistani women broke into one of the country's most exclusive male clubs for the first time to graduate as fighter pilots – perhaps the most prestigious job in the military and for six decades closed to them.