On December 8, 1971, four young Indian fighter pilots scything their way through enemy airspace were greeted by a sight almost too good to be true - several  Pakistan Air Force (PAF) transports and fighter jets were out in the open at Murid airbase which they had been tasked to attack. The PAF had been caught off-guard and Squadron Leader RN Bharadwaj, Flying Officer VK Heble, Flying Officer BC Karambaya and Flight Lieutenant AL Deoskar flying British-made Hunters of the IAF's 20 Squadron pressed home their attack on the airbase located 120 kilometres inside Pakistan.

 

Never have more enemy jets been destroyed in a single IAF raid on a Pakistani airbase. 


In his new book, "In The Ring and On Its Feet - Pakistan Air Force in the 1971 Indo-Pak war," Pakistan's premier military aviation historian Air Commodore M Kaiser Tufail (retd.) has now stated that IAF Hunters belonging to 20 Squadron destroyed 5 PAF F-86 Sabres on the ground in Murid. The F-86 wasn't just any fighter - the Sabre was the premier fighter of the Pakistan Air Force and the single biggest challenge for the Indian Air Force in air battles in both the 1965 and 1971 wars, a jet that shot down several IAF fighters in air-to-air combat and inflicted heavy damage to ground targets in Indian territory

The remarkable Indian Air Force attack in Murid during the 1971 war with Pakistan is a mostly forgotten chapter in the history of the Indian Air Force, due, in no small part, to the poor quality of video recordings of the attacks filmed from the gun-cameras of some of the jets.  Claims made by pilots could often never be verified and in cases, the pilots were honoured with gallantry medals for other operations that they were involved in. But Murid was different. The Pakistan Air Force has twice stated the impact of the raid.

Refrences- ndtv.com