Air Chief Marshal Mushaf Ali Mir (Punjabi, Urdu: مصحف على مير; March 5, 1947– 20 February 2003) was an influential statesman and a four-star air force general who served as the Chief of Air Staff of the Pakistan Air Force (PAF), appointed on 20 November 2000 until his accidental death in a plane crash on 20 February 2003. A fighter pilot and a strategist, he briefly served at command level in the ISI before controversially being promoted as a four-star air officer to command the air force in 2000. In 2001–02, he also commanded and provided the strategy to deploy troops during the military standoff with India. In addition, Air Chief Marshal Mir later went onto facilitate the United States military's war logistics for war operations in Afghanistan. His appointment was cut short when a former PAF Fokker F-27 in which he was a passenger crashed near Kohat, Pakistan. His death has been subject of numerous conspiracy theories, with many American authors charging him of having advanced knowledge on terrorist attacks in the United States in 2001. Biography Mushaf Ali Mir was born in Lahore, Punjab in British India on 5 March 1947. He hailed from the lower middle class family and was of the Punjabi Kashmiri descent, that practiced the Shia'a principles of Islam. His father, Farzand Ali Mir, was a calligrapher who died when Mushaf was still young. He attended Govt. Wattan Islamia High School in Lahore. Upon his matriculation from a local school in Lahore, Mir initially attended the Government College University but joined the Pakistan Air Force in 1966 which directed him to attend the famed Pakistan Air Force Academy in Risalpur, after the second war with India. In 1967, he gained commission in the Pakistan Air Force as a Pilot officer in the GD(P) branch. At the PAF Academy, he qualified to fly the F-6 Farmer fighter jet, and was posted to join the No. 25 Squadron Night Strike Eagles in 1970. In 1971, F/Off. Mir successfully flew his F-6 Farmer against the Indian Air Force's MiG-21, and was credited with shooting an Indian Air Force jet down with his missile. After the war in 1971, Flt. Lt. Mir attended the Air War College where he attained his master's in War studies, and later went on to attend the National Defence University where he graduated with a master's in Strategic studies. During this time, he