There is an Indian Air Force Captured Gnat in Karachi Air Force Museum
I was aware that Pakistan had captured an intact Folland Gnat interceptor of the Indian Air Force in the 1965 war. This aircraft is displayed at the Karachi Air Museum of the Pakistan Air Force. This frankly is a matter of shame for all Indians. I wanted to see this plane and the chance came last year in my present appointment. I had visited Rawalpindi then and also seen the famous battlefield at Chillianwallah. From there , I chose to fly to Abu Dhabi via Karachi. I spent 2 days in Karachi and also visited the PAF museum. I was attended to by a senior officer of the PAF.
The plane is the pride of the museum and brings out the so called glory of the PAF. My thoughts centered on the pilot. I wondered how he could have surrendered an intact planr to Pakistan without a fight. This was an incident that happened in 1965 war.
The facts of this surrender distress me greatly The plane a Folland Gnat had taken off along with a flight to bomb Pak army positions, after the Indian army on express instructions from the little big man Lal Bahadur Shashtri had ordered a second front to be opened in Lahore sector. The plane was piloted by Flight Lieutenant Sikand. There are differing accounts of what happened on that fateful day.
The pilot Sikand claims that he lost his other flight planes and came down low searching for them. As he was running out of fuel he saw an airfield. Thinking it was an Indian airfield he landed, only to be surrounded by PAF airmen. They arrested him and made him a POW.
The PAF version is different. It states that when the Indian flight entered Pak airspace , the PAF scrambled 2 , F 104 Star Fighters. The F 104 is a Mach 2 interceptor, while the Gnat is a subsonic plane. Despite the odds, the Indians began a dog fight, but one plane piloted by Sikand broke away, perhaps to save his skin. He was pursued by a F 104 and forced to land at a disused airfield close to Lahore. Sikand and the plane were captured. sikand to save his skin made no attempt to crash land the plane and prevent it falling into Pak hands, but preferred to surrender. Sikand spent the rest of the war as a POW.
News of the surrender and capture was broadcast by Radio Pakistan. The Indian Chief Air Marshal Arjan Singh was stunned and promptly ordered the dismissal of Sikand and a court martial on his return. However unknown to Arjan Singh, Sikand had big political connections and relations.. They prevailed on the government to reinstate Sikand and this was duly done. Sadly Sikand was inducted back and retired as a Air Vice Marshal.
The curtain is now closed on this chapter, but the plane remains at the Karachi Museum. A photo from wiki commons of the plane in the Museum is added above.
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