New Delhi : After new details emerged of one of the most successful ground attack missions in the history of the Indian Air Force, two distinguished veterans, both legends in their own right, believe that the Air Headquarters needs to re-open its file on the IAF strike mission to Murid in Pakistan during the 1971 war and credit some of the pilots who have never been recognised for their role.
In his new book, "In The Ring and On Its Feet – Pakistan Air Force in the 1971 Indo-Pak War", Pakistan’s leading military aviation historian Air Commodore M Kaiser Tufail (Retd.) has stated that IAF Hunter fighter jets belonging to 20 Squadron, ‘The Lightnings’ of the IAF destroyed 5 PAF F-86 Sabres on the ground in Murid on December 8, 1971.
He goes on to list the identifying tail-numbers of these jets. This would make this mission the single-most successful counter-air operation in the IAF’s history, meant to target enemy aircraft while they are on the ground.
As NDTV reported yesterday, never have more enemy jets been destroyed in a single IAF raid on a Pakistani airbase — a fact that found mention in Pakistani records but has never been adequately recognised by the Indian Air Force.
Responding to the details in Tufail’s book, the then Commanding Officer of the Pathankot-based 20 Squadron during the 1971 war, Air Vice Marshal Cecil Parker (Retd.) says: "In view of the admission of the loss of five Sabre aircraft (with tail numbers given) of the PAF in Murid on December 8, 1971, they must be credited to Mission 113 and be included in No 20 Squadron total toll in any official history of the IAF."
Parker is no ordinary IAF officer. Awarded the Maha Vir Chakra, the second highest military decoration in India, Parker shot down an enemy Sabre fighter, heavily damaged another one and attacked the Pakistani oil refinery at Attock in the face of intense anti-aircraft fire while leading 20 Squadron during the ’71 war.
According to Parker, "My own opinion is that the Awards Committee at Air headquarters felt that too many awards were going to a single unit, ie No 20 Squadron. I may add that two-thirds of my recommendations were accepted but the one-third that wasn’t, included my recommendations for Dhillon, Murlidharan and Heble."
One of the officers Parker refers to is Flying Officer VK Heble, who along with Squadron Leader RN Bharadwaj, Flying Officer BC Karambaya and Flight Lieutenant AL Deoskar, flew the British-made Hunters to Murid on that fateful day. Heble, who quit the IAF as a Flight Lieutenant after 1971, was tragically killed in an Indian Airlines crash near Mumbai a few years later. According to BC Karambaya, "Heble claimed he fired his guns at a ‘pointed nose’ aircraft" when the Hunters were strafing Murid

