Shooting down of Rafiqui by Flt Lt DN Rathore - 1965 Indo - Pak War

The Indo Pakistan war of 1965 saw aircraft of the Indian Air Force (IAF) and the Pakistan Air Force (PAF) engaging in combat for the first time since independence. Although the two forces had previously faced off in the First Kashmir War during the late 1940s, that engagement was very limited in scale compared to the 1965 conflict. 

On 6 September, the Indian Army crossed the border at Lahore to relieve pressure on the Chamb Jaurian sector. On the evening of the same day, the PAF responded with preemptive attacks on Indian airfields at Pathankot, Adampur and Halwara. Halwara strike led by Sqn Ldr Sarfraz Rafiqi somehow evaded all IAF aeroplanes and managed to reach Halwara airfield at night where preemptive bombing couldn’t be carried out due to CAP flown by IAF. Though heavily outnumbered, deep in enemy territory two of the three attacking raiders were shot down for the confirmed loss of two Indian Hunters in air combat. As per IAF, both the Indian pilots survived as they ejected over their base, whereas both the intruding Pakistani pilots were killed in action. This included Flt Lt Yunus and Pakistani flying ace Squadron Leader Sarfraz Rafiqui who couldn’t survive low level ejection. Sqn Ldr Rafiqui had earlier shot down two Vampires on 1 September, before being shot down, Sqn Ldr Rafiqui is credited with shooting down first of the Hunters, bringing his total kills to three.^[38] He was later posthumously awarded the Sitara-e-Jurat for the Chamb action and the Hilal-i-Jurat for the Halwara action.^[39] Only Flt Lt Cecil Chaudhry somehow managed to come back alive from this suicidal pursuit.On 6 September, the Indian Army crossed the border at Lahore to relieve pressure on the Chamb Jaurian sector. On the evening of the same day, the PAF responded with preemptive attacks on Indian airfields at Pathankot, Adampur and Halwara. The attack on Pathankot was great success, as the IAF lost almost ten aircraft on the ground at Pathankot, while the attacks on Adampur and Halwara were failures. The Adampur strike led by Sqn Ldr M. M. Alam turned back before even reaching Adampur while the even later Halwara strike led by Sqn Ldr Sarfraz Rafiqi somehow evaded all IAF aeroplanes and managed to reach Halwara airfield at night where preemptive bombing couldn’t be carried out due to CAP flown by IAF. Though heavily outnumbered, deep in enemy territory two of the three attacking raiders were shot down for the confirmed loss of two Indian Hunters in air combat. As per IAF, both the Indian pilots survived as they ejected over their base, whereas both the intruding Pakistani pilots were killed in action. This included Flt Lt Yunus and Pakistani flying ace Squadron Leader Sarfraz Rafiqui who couldn’t survive low level ejection. 

Details of the air combat as stated to me by late Air Marshal DN Rathore is given below :- 

On 06 Sep 1965, I was leading a two ac CAP mission over Halwara airfield. My No. 2 was Flt Lt VK Neb. We were at approx 10000 feet. Another formation of two Hunters flown by Pingale/Adi Gandhi were also on CAP, but we were not in contact with each other.   We were high, probably at 10,000 ft. It was dusk time with visibility on marginal side. We did not have any information of a raid. CAP was mounted daily as PAF was raiding our bases in the West quite regularly as the war started gathering momentum. Our formation was from 27 Sqn while other formation was from 7 Sqn.

As we were circling in the standard CAP pattern, I suddenly saw a bright plume of flame going down and exploded in a fireball as it impacted ground. To me it appeared like an ac going down in flame. After little while, I spotted  an ac  below me that appeared like a Sabre flying in a Westerly direction firing its front guns. I distinctly remember seeing the burst of rounds impacting the ground. 

I positioned behind the Sabre and noticed another Sabre to its left. Neb was on  my left echelon and he positioned behind the second Sabre. With my speed increasing in the descent I was tending to overshoot the Sabre and had to come down on throttle as I started spiralling down towards the Sabre.  He appeared to be totally oblivious to the threat on his tail as he continued to fly in a straight course towards general direction of Pakistan. I closed in to approx 500 yards in the line astern and opened fire. I was quite certain that my rounds had impacted the Sabre as it suddenly decelerated and subsequently I noticed trail of flame in its exhaust. I presume the ac had flamed out as it decelerated  rapidly. Then I saw the ac suddenly disintegrating in air and few parts of it whizzed past me. I did not see the pilot ejecting. Later PAD/GD commander of the base had told me that they found the crash site somewhere near Jagraon and found the body of the pilot as well.

We analysed the gun camera shots during debrief and it had recorded very clearly my rounds impacting the ac. My no.2, Neb had got behind the second Sabre and his film too showed clear shots of his rounds impacting the second Sabre.

I moved out of Halwara with 27 Sqn soon after this encounter and immediately after the war I was sent to Soviet Union to convert to MiGs. Hence I was not aware of how the entire encounter  between the four Hunters and the Sabres were analysed and recorded by the Air Force.   I came to know  much later that the pilot of the Sabre who was killed in action in the encounter was Sqn Ldr Sarfaraz Rafiqui, a decorated war hero of PAF.