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Air Operations suspended in East
Business as usual in the West

Dec 15, New Delhi: Keeping with the offer of the Indian Goverment as communicated by General Maneksahw to the Pakistani troops in the Eastern Sector, the IAF had suspended offensive operations against East Pakistani army targets from 1700 Hours today evening. The cessation of operations will continue until 0900 Hours tommorrow morning and much will depend on what the Pakistani response is going to be.

Earlier in the morning operations against the Tejgaon airfield and targets in Dacca were undertaken. The HQ of the Army command of the Pakistanis was one of the first targets to be hit today morning. Tejgaon airfield was attacked by Canberras of No.16 Squadron at a low level. One of the Canberras was shot down by AA fire and it crashed in the vicinity. The crew Flt Lt B R E Wilson and Fg Off R B Mehta , the navigator are believed to have been killed as no parachutes were observed when it crashed.

MiG-21s from No.28 Squadron attacked Pakistani Army positions in Dacca university on the reciept of Intelligence reports. Sixteen sorties were flown and the MiGs fired more than 1280 rockets at the Pakistani army positions in the University. By evening the orders had come to suspend offensive operations and all squadrons have settled down to rest.

In the western sector, the IAF carried out its interdiction and close support operations against the Pakistani targets. Pakistani aircraft in return attempted raids on Srinagar and Uttarlai. At Srinagar, one of the Vampire fighters of 123 Ad-Hoc Squadron was destroyed in a Hangar fire started by the enemy air raid. While the fire was about to spread to other hangars , Flt Lt P P S Kawatra showed considerable spirit in extinguishing the fire. The Squadron's aircraft had just then returned from an offensive sortie against positions in the Kargil sector.