Flying Officer Nirmal Jit Singh Sekhon: The Only IAF Pilot to Win the Param Vir Chakra

Shortly after eight on the morning of 14 December 1971, six Pakistan Air Force Sabre jets came in low over Srinagar airfield. Two Indian Gnats were on standby, and only one of them stayed to fight. Its pilot was Flying Officer Nirmal Jit Singh Sekhon of No. 18 Squadron, and within a few minutes he was dead, having taken on the raiders almost alone. He remains the only member of the Indian Air Force ever awarded the Param Vir Chakra, India’s highest wartime gallantry award.

Early life of Nirmal Jit Singh Sekhon

Sekhon was born on 17 July 1943 in the village of Isewal in Ludhiana district, Punjab, though some sources give the year as 1945. His father, Tarlok Singh Sekhon (also written Tarlochan Singh), served in the Indian Air Force and held the rank of Flight Lieutenant, so the boy grew up with the service around him.

He went on to the National Defence Academy and then to flying training. On 4 June 1967 he was commissioned as a Pilot Officer in the Indian Air Force, and by 1971 he had become a Flying Officer. People who knew him have described him as a quiet young man who took his flying seriously and stayed calm under pressure.

18 Squadron, the Flying Bullets

By late 1971 Sekhon was flying the Folland Gnat with No. 18 Squadron, nicknamed the Flying Bullets. The Gnat was a small, light, single-seat fighter that was hard to spot in the air, and in the 1965 war it had earned the nickname “Sabre Slayer” for its success against Pakistan’s American-built F-86 Sabres. Hindustan Aeronautics built the Gnat under licence in Bangalore, and its two 30 mm cannons gave a small aircraft a heavy punch at close range.

The squadron was based at Srinagar to defend the Kashmir Valley. It was a hard posting. The airfield sits at more than 5,000 feet, winter fog was common in the mornings, and Pakistani air bases were only a few minutes’ flying time away. Pilots on readiness duty waited in a hut beside the runway so they could be airborne within moments of an alert.

The raid on Srinagar, 14 December 1971

The 1971 war between India and Pakistan began on 3 December, when Pakistan launched air strikes on Indian airfields in the north and west. By 14 December it was in its second week, and India was advancing quickly in the east; Pakistani forces in Dhaka would surrender on 16 December, just two days after Sekhon’s death, leading to the creation of Bangladesh. In the west, Pakistan was trying to hit Indian airfields with sudden low-level raids to slow India down.

On the morning of 14 December, six F-86 Sabres crossed into Indian airspace and turned towards Srinagar. Sekhon and his flight leader, Flight Lieutenant Ghuman, were the pair on standby. When the raid was reported, both ran to their aircraft.

Ghuman got off first. Sekhon was still rolling down the runway when the Sabres arrived over the airfield and began bombing it. He took off through the attack, with debris on the strip and bombs falling around the base. Once in the air, the two Gnats lost sight of each other, and Sekhon was effectively on his own.

The air battle over the valley

Sekhon went after the Sabres in a low-level dogfight close to the airfield. His Param Vir Chakra citation credits him with hitting one Sabre and damaging another. Exactly what he shot down is still argued over, and Indian and Pakistani accounts of the fight do not agree.

He was badly outnumbered. Indian accounts describe his radio calls to ground control as calm and clear, even as more Sabres turned on him and closed in from behind. Fighting at treetop height, his Gnat was finally hit by gunfire and went down.

He did not survive. The wreckage was later found in a gorge near Badgam, but his body was never recovered, and the exact spot where he died is uncertain.

Why his fight mattered

Indian accounts credit Sekhon’s attack with breaking up the Pakistani formation before it could do serious damage. The Srinagar runway stayed usable, and the base carried on operating for the rest of the war. A raid that met no opposition could have done far more harm.

The other point is simpler. A young pilot, heavily outnumbered, chose to take off into an attack that was already underway and to fight rather than wait it out. That decision is what the Param Vir Chakra recognises.

The Param Vir Chakra

Sekhon was awarded the Param Vir Chakra posthumously, with the award notified in the Gazette of India on 26 January 1972. The citation speaks of his conspicuous gallantry and determination against a much larger enemy force. The medal was received on his behalf by his family, including his widow, Manjit Kaur.

Only 21 people have received the Param Vir Chakra since it was instituted, and almost all of them were soldiers of the Indian Army. Sekhon is the only one from the Air Force.

How India remembers him

A statue of Sekhon stands at the IAF Museum at Palam in New Delhi, next to a Folland Gnat of the kind he flew. In Ludhiana, his home district, another statue has a decommissioned Gnat beside it, and a bust was unveiled at the government school in Isewal in 2021.

The air base at Srinagar keeps a memorial to him. At the National War Memorial in New Delhi, all 21 Param Vir Chakra recipients are honoured with busts at the Param Yodha Sthal, so if you visit, look for Sekhon’s among them.

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Frequently Asked Questions

Why is Sekhon the only IAF Param Vir Chakra recipient?

The Param Vir Chakra is given only for the highest acts of bravery in the presence of the enemy, and most recipients have been soldiers in ground battles. Sekhon’s choice to take off during a raid and engage a larger enemy formation, at almost certain cost to his life, met that standard.

Which aircraft did the Pakistan Air Force use in the raid?

The raid was flown by F-86 Sabres, the same American-built fighter that the Gnat had fought in the 1965 war.

Which squadron did Sekhon belong to?

He flew with No. 18 Squadron of the Indian Air Force, known as the Flying Bullets, which was based at Srinagar during the 1971 war.

Sources and Further Reading

• Government of India, Gazette of India, Param Vir Chakra citation, 26 January 1972
• Rachna Bisht Rawat, The Brave: Param Vir Chakra Stories, Penguin India
• Air Marshal Bharat Kumar (Retd.), An Incredible War: IAF in Kashmir, KW Publishers