LONDON: Pakistan Air Force has become complete master of the air space above the Indo-Pakistan battle fronts, according to reports published in the British Press from both sides of the front. The Guardian Defence Correspondent Clare Hollingworth, who is now with the Indian troops at Jaurian, near Jammu, reports that “The Indians are short of radar, and by day Pakistani F-104 supersonic fighters can, and do, make reconnaissance flights with little fear of being hit.”

Testifying to the accuracy of Pakistan air attacks on Indian military targets, this correspondent says: “There have been constant Pakistan air raids over Jammu, where they attack the airfield (which has been put out of use) and the more important airfield at Pathankot, an important communications centre. The bombs that were dropped on civilian areas were dropped accidentally. In the eight raids I have witnessed in two nights, the airfields were attacked directly.” The air support given by the Pakistan Air Force to the armour in the Sialkot area has been no less important. According to Correspondent Arthur Cook of the “Daily Mail”, now in Sialkot, “Pakistani planes sweep overhead in flights of four every 15 minutes. Out of the new bag of 30 Indian tanks nearly all of them were on this front.”

As for the Indian Air Force, its flights are apparently confined to the imagination of Government propagandists in Delhi. For, as Correspondent Arthur Cook observes from the Sialkot front, “the Indian Air Force is showing less force than on the day it entered the war a week ago. Hunters, MiGs and Mysteres appear in pairs no more than once or twice an hour to strike at Pakistani positions.”

Published in Dawn, September 15th, 2015

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