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Some victories end with wreckage scattered across a battlefield. Pakistan got something considerably more embarrassing for its opponent on 3 September 1965: an Indian Air Force fighter aircraft landed intact on Pakistani soil, its pilot became a prisoner of war, and the aircraft itself eventually became a museum exhibit in Karachi.
That last part is not Pakistani folklore, a WhatsApp forward or a patriotic story inflated sixty years after the event. The aircraft exists. Its identity is known. Indian aviation records acknowledge losing it at Pasrur. The official Pakistan Air Force Museum describes it as the “Indian Gnat – The War Trophy.” And the Indian pilot at the centre of the incident, Squadron Leader Brij Pal Singh Sikand, did not disappear into obscurity after the war; remarkably, he continued his career and eventually rose to Air Marshal.
What remains disputed is not whether Pakistan captured Gnat IE-1083. That is established. The argument is over why it landed.
Pakistan’s account says Flight Lieutenant Hakimullah, flying the fearsome F-104 Starfighter, compelled the isolated Indian fighter to surrender and force-land. The Indian version argues that Sikand had lost his bearings, was short on fuel and mistakenly landed at Pasrur believing himself to be somewhere else.
More than six decades later, the aircraft sitting in Pakistan makes one part of the argument rather difficult to talk away.
3 September 1965: When an IAF Gnat Ended Up at Pasrur
The official Pakistan Air Force Museum account records that on 3 September 1965, two F-104 Starfighters flown by Flight Lieutenant Hakimullah and Flying Officer Abbas Mirza were scrambled from Sargodha to intercept four Indian Gnats.
One of those aircraft became separated from the formation.
It was Folland/HAL Gnat IE-1083, belonging to the Indian Air Force’s No. 23 Squadron and flown by Squadron Leader Brij Pal Singh Sikand.
According to the PAF Museum, the isolated Gnat was unable to combat the F-104s and “surrendered and force-landed” at the abandoned Pasrur airfield near Sialkot. Hakimullah remained overhead until Pakistani troops had secured both aircraft and pilot.
The extraordinary thing is that even an Indian military-aviation database confirms the basic physical outcome. Bharat Rakshak’s aircraft record for IE-1083 lists the aircraft’s final service date as 3 September 1965, identifies Sikand as its pilot and records:
