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Battle of Boyra

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The battle took place between a four ship formation of the No. 22 squadron of the Indian Air Force equipped with HAL built Gnats, against a four ship formation of Canadair Sabres of the PAF No. 14 Squadron.

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1971-11-22

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Wing Commander Afzal Chaudhry Flt. Lt. Roy Andrew Massey

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None. 2 One Sabre damaged, but recovered to base at Dacca.

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strikeforce neutralised Two PAF Sabres shot down, one damaged Two PAF pilots taken PoW. Victory for Mitro Bahini

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Pakistan 65 Bangladesh India

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Boyra Salient, north west region of East Pakistan.

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Battle of Boyra

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The battle took place between a four ship formation of the No. 22 squadron of the Indian Air Force equipped with HAL built Gnats, against a four ship formation of Canadair Sabres of the PAF No. 14 Squadron. No. 22 squadron, based in Kalaikunda AFB, was tasked with the air defence of Calcutta sector. The Squadron was formed in October 1966 at Bareilly and had been equipped with the HAL built Ajeets immediately. It was part of 5 Wing at Kalaikunda from September 1968 onwards. The unit started operating a detachment under the command of Wing Commander BS Sikand from the Dum Dum airfield in Calcutta which was activated from 22 September 1971. Sikand had been taken as a prisoner of war in Pakistan in the 1965 War under curious circumstances after landing in an abandoned airfield in Pasrur in Pakistan. PAF claim he surrendered to Flight Lt. Hakimullah from the No. 9 Squadron flying in his F-104 Starfighter.[citation needed] However, Sikand himself claimed that he had landed in the airfield believing it to be an Indian airfield. This is half corroborated by the semi-official website which was set up by the [then] serving Air Commodore Kaiser Tufail. Tufail writes that Hakimullah had not seen the Gnat so cannot claim to have 'forced' the surrender. He does however speculate that even though the F-104s may not have seen the Gnat, the Gnat pilot may have seen the F-104s. The Indian air force later would award Sikand the AVSM, which may indicate that they were more prepared to believe Sikand's version over PAF's. Sikand's aircraft was seen on the radar scope at 230 Signals Unit, Amritsar, commanded by Wing Commander K. Dandapani AVSM (retd.) as veering off-course and losing altitude well before others in his formation reached Sargodha and put down at Pasrur. Sikand landed a fully fueled, armed and untouched Folland Gnat at Pasrur which to this day is on display at a PAF museum.