Wings of Duty

Wings of Duty — Page 27

27 5,000 each to various interested parties. It was through Muhammad Latif ’s efforts that the community bought its first L-5 airplane. Like everyone else, the community paid Rs 5,000 for it. I had been back in Delhi for only a few days, this was either at the end of July or the beginning of August 1947, I do remember that it was Ramadan as I was fasting, when I was woken up one night by a visitor from Qadian. My residence back then was in the house of Sahibzada Mirza Munir Ahmad in Ballygunge. The visitor handed me a letter from Sahibzada Mirza Bashir Ahmad ra , telling me to go to Lahore immediately and fly the community’s L-5 plane to Qadian, which was stationed in Lahore’s Walton Airport under the supervision of the CAA. Along with his letter was a letter of authorisation to the manager of Walton Airport permitting the delivery of the plane to me. Early the next morning and without informing the airline I was working for, I made my arrangements to go to Lahore. I took the Indian National Airlines flight to Walton Airport in the afternoon and from there went by coach to Faletti’s Hotel. The coach I was on had a permit to travel during the curfew in the city and I was able to spend the night at Faletti’s and the