5 March 1966: A day when Indian Air Force Bombed its own people

India claims itself to be a secular state where all religions are free to function as per their aspirations. But is it really true? The ongoing freedom struggle of the Kashmiris and its suppression with the brute force is not hidden from the world. Thousands of Kashmiri Muslims seeking freedom from India have been martyred and thousands and thousands maimed and injured for life in the recent years.

This shows that anyone is welcome to live in India provided they agree to be subservient to the majority Hindu population and sing Banday Matram to show their allegiance to the state. But are Kashmiris the only ones who are being suppressed and silenced?

Nay, you will be surprised to know that on this day, 5th March 1961, India used its air force to bomb its own people - an event lesser known to the free world. And March 5 marks the 50th anniversary of the bombing of Aizawl – the first air raid by the Indian Air Force on civilian territory within the country. 

For India, this was something just not digestible. And the government of India under Indira Gandhi ordered its air force to teach the Mizos a bloody lesson. Thus on March 5, four fighter jets of the Indian Air Force – French-built Dassault Ouragan fighters (nicknamed Toofanis), and British Hunters – were deployed to bomb Aizawl. Taking off from Tezpur, Kumbigram and Jorhat in Assam, the planes first used machine guns to fire at the town. They returned the next day to drop incendiary bombs. The strafing of Aizawl and other areas continued till March 13 even as the town’s panicked civilian population fled to the hills. The rebels were forced to retreat into the jungles of Myanmar and Bangladesh, which was then East Pakistan.

And as usual Indian government lied to its people and to the world: A March 9, 1966, report by the now-defunct Kolkata-daily, the Hindustan Standard, quoted Prime Minister Indira Gandhi as saying that the fighter jets had been sent in to airdrop men and supplies, not bombs. But the question was, why would anyone deploy fighter jets to drop rations?

[Photo]

And today, more than fifty years, the Indian army has not left any means of war which has not been used against the Kashmir Muslims seeking freedom as did the Mizos decades ago. But this time, the resilience shown by the Kashmir freedom fighters is much more potent and fierce which despite presence of of more than 600,000 personnel of Indian security forces is gaining momentum every day. Perhaps a turning point has come in the history of India to say goodbye to Kashmir, for its people are just not prepared to live and support the tri coloured Indian flag anymore. For one sees more Pakistani flags in rallies than Indian tri coloured !!

Source | Photo (IAF Hunter)

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Posted in: Bombing,Freedom,Indian Air Force,Kashmir,Mizos,Struggle for Freedom