As the nation is eagerly waiting for the arrival of the first batch of five Rafale jets from France, in Kashmir the name of Air commodore Hilal Ahmad Rather has suddenly caught everyone’s attention.
Born in south Kashmir’s Anantnag district, Rather was admitted to Class 6 at Sainik School Nagrota, near Jammu, in 1978. Rather was commissioned in IAF as a flight pilot on December 17, 1988, months after Pakistan’s military ruler General Zia-ul-Haq died in an air crash. It was the time of the height of alienation and the beginning of the insurgency in Kashmir.
He was promoted as Flight Lieutenant on December 17, 1993, as a Wing Commander on December 16, 2004, as a Group Captain on May 1, 2010 and as Air Commodore on December 26, 2016.
