Had To Keep Lights Off, Could Bomb Us Anytime: Kolkatans Recall Nights When PAF Flew Over Them

During the 1971 war, battles were being fought on two fronts. One in the west and one in the east. So it was not unexpected that cities on the border states should get a feel of the action even though not being involved directly at any point.

One such city was Kolkata in West Bengal. Not too far from the action in what would eventually become East Pakistan, Kolkata was no stranger to PAF jets flying over the city in the dead of the night. It happened a lot in 1965, and while the frequency was less, it happened in 1971 too. Even 50 years later, people have not forgotten. Now in many cases, it was not always possible to ascertain if the flights were PAF or IAF. In fact most of the time it was IAF as it was unlikely that PAF jets made it that deep into India on a consistent basis. Truth be told, maybe one out of ten of the planes heard were PAF jets but it did keep a city very restless knowing that we were at war with our neighbours just 6 years since the last time we had engaged in battle.

While no actual damage was caused, it did leave many of the citizens with sleepless nights, as they revealed while talking exclusively to Indiatimes.

"We had to keep the lights off or else we presented a target," recalls Aniruddha (66) while reliving those days.

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"They could bomb us anytime, luckily nothing like that happened as they were busy with the IAF," said Nilanjana (71)

"Black gauze was used to avoid the glass reflecting any form of light," remembers Abhijeet (66)

"At night we kept a low profile and when we heard the sound of planes we were never sure if it was IAF or PAF," said Siddhartha (66).

Some people even recall dogfights, of course, nobody could see beyond a couple of shadows in the night sky. Though the trail of smoke or the burst of aerial gunfire was occasionally visible.

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"It was risky to look up but we took a peek and saw one plane's shadow chasing the other," said Somnath (77)

The nights were long and terrifying at times and while it did end in an anti-climax, no doubt people were relieved when the war ended. An Indian victory was all the more reason to celebrate.

5 decades later, the memories of those experiences remain and live on in the minds of those who lived them.

Now one must remember that these jets were flying very high so unless they engaged the city, there would be nothing to worry about for the citizens. Even the aerial battles that took place were well above and thankfully no plane crashed into the city at any point in time. And those were very few and far between. One can look back now and say maybe the fears of an attack were unfounded, but on those winter nights of 1971, one can understand the apprehension among those down below.

And one can certainly understand the fear of the citizens, after all, it was not something they were used to.

The war ended on December 16 as Pakistan surrendered. A new nation named Bangladesh was born, a country that had already declared itself independent on March 26 that year.

India and Pakistan would not engage in another war for almost 3 decades until the Kargil conflict of 1999. As of now it stands India 4 Pakistan 0 in all wars since 1947 and it looks unlikely to change.