An overnight dash to salvage a bombed runway that changed the face of ’71 war

The 53rd anniversary of India's 1971 war victory highlights the bravery of combat engineers who cleared Srinagar airfield, enabling key air operations.

The 53rd anniversary of India’s victory over Pakistan in the 1971 war has put the spotlight on the heroism of the army’s combat engineers who put their lives on the line to make the bombed-out Srinagar airfield available for fighter operations, with a young fighter pilot who flew from the same base later being posthumously decorated with the Param Vir Chakra (PVC) --- the Indian Air Force’s only winner of the top military honour.

Inderjit Singh Chugh’s team erected sandbag walls at the sites where the UXBs were being detonated. (HT Photo  )

Eighty-year-old Brigadier Inderjit Singh Chugh (retd),