With his father's consent, he submitted his documents and was accepted to the Baku Higher Combined Arms Command School in August of that year.

[8] In November 1992, during the First Nagorno-Karabakh War, Hashimov, who was training with the 702nd Motorised Rifle Brigade, fought in the successful defence of the villages of Marzili and Novruzlu in the Aghdam District of Azerbaijan.

[8][9] He was involved in clashes with Armenian forces in the Guzgu, Koroghlu, and Omar military posts in the Murov range.

[11] On 1 April 2016, heavy fighting broke out between the Azerbaijani and Armenian forces along the Nagorno-Karabakh Line of Contact, known as the Four-Day War.

[8] On 24 June 2019, President Aliyev promoted Hashimov to major general, the highest military rank in the Azerbaijani Army.

[15] Hashimov became the first Gabalani general since Ismayil bek Kutkashensky, a 19th-century Azerbaijani military officer in the Imperial Russian Army.

[25] On the same day, the deputy defence minister of Azerbaijan, Karim Valiyev, announced that Hashimov and Colonel Ilgar Mirzayev were among the fallen Azerbaijani officers.

[29] Azerbaijan's minister of defence, Zakir Hasanov, chief of general staff, Najmaddin Sadigov, and, the mayor of Baku, Eldar Azizov, attended the funeral.

[30][31] On the same day, President Ilham Aliyev had a telephone conversation with Hashimov's mother, expressing his deep condolences to her.

[33] Many speculated that his exact location was given to the Armenian side by a sleeper agent,[34] the primary suspect being Najmeddin Sadikov, Azerbaijan's chief of staff and the deputy minister of defence.

When Hashimov's body was taken to his house in Sumgayit,[37] a crowd of hundreds of people from different parts of the city gathered there chanting pro-army slogans.

[43] The demonstrators, waving the Azerbaijani flag, called for the end of the COVID-19 pandemic related quarantine, mobilisation and a war against Armenia to retake the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region.

Apart from support for the army and calls for war,[43] the demonstrators demanded the resignation of the chief of general staff of the Azerbaijani Armed Forces and the deputy minister of defence, Najmeddin Sadikov.

[43] According to a report by the Azerbaijani Parliament, the demonstrators damaged a number of items in the building worth 22,150 AZN ($13,000 US) in total.

[49][50] The Azerbaijani Ministry of Internal Affairs accused the demonstrators of deliberately disobeying the demands of police officers and attacking them with stones and other objects.

[43] Following this, security forces used water cannons, tear gas and batons to disperse those gathered in front of the parliament building.

[53] Despite this, according to other Azerbaijani sources, as many as 120 people were detained after the protests, including members of the NIDA Civic Movement and journalists.

[56][57][58] Later, in January 2022, Hashimov's mother, Samaya Hashimova, alleged that Karim Valiyev, who was appointed Chief of the General Staff of the Azerbaijani Armed Forces in July 2021, had her son killed in order to get the position instead of him.

[67] On 22 August 2020, Azerbaijani military singer Shamistan Alizamanli released a song titled My Pasha, Hey!

[68] On 24 August, a documentary titled 7 Moments of Polad (Azerbaijani: Poladın 7 anı) dedicated to the life of Hashimov and directed by Ruslan Hussein was presented on Ictimai TV.

[69] In August 2020, a street was named after Hashimov in his native Vandam, in Gabala District,[70] and in January 2021, in Guba,[71] and in Keban, Elazığ, Turkey.

[74] Hashimov was declared a National Hero of Azerbaijan in December 2020, along with Ilgar Mirzayev and Ibad Huseynov, by the decree of President Aliyev.

[75][76] Throughout his military career, Hashimov received numerous promotions[11] and was awarded more than twelve times, including jubilee[8] and other medals.