he IAF was asked to carry the troops in Mi-4 helicopters into the besieged AR camp, accompanied with fighter escorts, but failed due to heavy and accurate fire by the insurgents. The Toofani fighters of 29 Squadron operating from Kumbhirgram and Hunter fighters of 17 Squadron operating from Jorhat undertook independent missions to escort the troop reinforcements and to suppress the insurgents.[1] Later, when the Eastern Army Commander Lt Gen SHFJ Manekshaw, MC overflew parts of Mizoram in 1968, his helicopter was fired at by the insurgents.[6]
On the afternoon of 4 March 1966, the IAF jet fighters strafed the MNF targets in Aizawl using machine guns, allegedly causing few civilian casualties.[4][7] The next day, a more extensive airstrike was carried out for about five hours. According to some Mizos, the planes used incendiary bombs, resulting in fires that destroyed several houses in the Dawrpui and Chhinga Veng areas. According to some other accounts, the houses were destroyed in the fires started by the prisoners released from the Aizawl jail by the insurgents.[4] Apart from Aizawl, the neighbouring villages of Tualbung and Hnahlan were also allegedly bombarded. No human casualties were officially reported in these airstrikes, but most of the civilian population fled Aizawl, and took refuge in the remote villages in the adjacent hills.
In the history of independent India, this remains the only instance of the Government of India resorting to air strikes in its own territory.[1] Locals claim that Rajesh Pilot and Suresh Kalmadi were among the IAF pilots who dropped the bombs.[8] Pu Zoramthanga, who went on to become the Chief Minister of Mizoram in 1998, once said that the main reason he joined the MNF and became a rebel was the "relentless bombing of Aizawl in 1966".[9]
