Battle of Boyra The Battle of Boyra , on 22 November 1971 , was fought between the Bengali Guerrilla s named Mukti Bahini and the Pakistan armed forces . The armed forces of India joined the war on 3 December 1971 . The alliance of Mukti Bahini and Indian armed forces was named as Mitro Bahini . The battle was the first engagement between the Air Force s of Mtro Bahini and Pakistan of the Bangladesh Liberation War in 1971 . It is seen as a culmination of the Battle of Garibpur where the Mitro Bahini successfully engaged and destroyed strike elements of the Pakistan Air Force . The battle . The battle took place between a four ship formation of the No . 22 squadron of the Indian Air Force equipped with HAL built Gnat s , against a four ship formation of Canadair Sabre s of the PAF No . 14 Squadron . No . 22 squadron , based in Kalaikunda AFB , was tasked with the air defence of Calcutta sector . The Squadron was formed in October 1966 at Bareilly and had been equipped with the HAL built Ajeets immediately . It was part of 5 Wing at Kalaikunda from September 1968 onwards . The unit started operating a detachment under the command of Wing Commander BS Sikand from the Dum Dum airfield in Calcutta which was activated from 22 September 1971 . Sikand had been taken as a prisoner of war in Pakistan in the 1965 War under curious circumstances after landing in an abandoned airfield in Pasrur in Pakistan . PAF claim he surrendered to Flight Lt . Hakimullah from the No . 9 Squadron flying in his F - 104 Starfighter . However , Sikand himself claimed that he had landed in the airfield believing it to be an Indian airfield . This is half corroborated by the semi - official website which was set up by the [ then ] serving Air Commodore Kaiser Tufail . Tufail writes that Hakimullah had not seen the Gnat so cannot claim to have ' forced ' the surrender . He does however speculate that even though the F - 104s may not have seen the Gnat , the Gnat pilot may have seen the F - 104s . The Indian air force later would award Sikand the AVSM , which may indicate that they were more prepared to believe Sikand ' s version over PAF ' s . Sikand ' s aircraft was seen on the radar scope at 230 Signals Unit , Amritsar , commanded by Wing Commander K . Dandapani AVSM ( retd . ) as veering off - course and losing altitude well before others in his formation reached Sargodha and put down at Pasrur . Sikand landed a fully fueled , armed and untouched Folland Gnat at Pasrur which to this day is on display at a PAF museum . Background to the ground battle . The initial skirmishes grew progressively bloody and on 21 November a group of Mukti Bahini assisted by Indian Army elements established a foothold in the Boyra Peninsula in what was then East Pakistan . This turned into full scale battle Battle of Garibpur when the Pakistani army brought a squadron of M24 Chaffee tanks into the battle . These were promptly taken on by a Squadron of PT - 76 Tanks from the 45 Cavalry regiment . In the ensuing battle , 13 of the Pakistani tanks were destroyed or incapacitated by the Indian forces which lost four of its own tanks damaged or destroyed , but had been able to draw the battle into its second day . Facing a reversal on the ground , the Pakistani Army commander called for air support . This only materialised on the second day of the battle . The first intrusion of four Sabres were picked up in the Jessore area on Indian radar at 0811 hours . These were the Canadair Sabres operated by No . 14 PAF squadron and were more powerful version of the Canadian built Sabre powered by the Orenda engine . It has been alleged by later historians that these were smuggle d into Pakistan through a clandestine deal organised between Germany and Iran No . 22 Squadron scrambled four Gnat s from Dum Dum . However the Sabres had flown back to their territory by the time the Gnats could make it to Boyra . A second raid by the Pakistanis followed at 1028 hours . An interception could not be carried out in time and the Sabres went off unscathed . A third strike was carried out in the afternoon on the Indian Army and Mitrobaihini positions at Chowgachha Mor . This time , however , luck had run out . In late 2 November PAF Sabres strafing Indian troops were downed by Ajeets , marking the first air combat between the two sides since 1965 . The pick - up . At around 1448 hours , the radar picked up the four Sabres as they pulled up in a north westerly direction to about above ground level . Within a minute , the ORP at Dum Dum was scrambled . Four Gnats took off by 1451 hours led by the formation leader Flt Lt Roy Andrew Massey . It was less than three minutes from the time the Sabres were detected by the radar . The Fighter controller in the sector was Fg Offr KB Bagchi . His voice went over the radio " One O ' Clock , 10 Nautical Miles " . Massey Replied " Contact , I can see them pull up " . The Sabres seemed to have already carried out several passes in the eight minutes it took the Gnats to reach the Boyra Sailent . The Sabres were commencing to start another dive - they were at about altitude and diving down to 500 ' in an attack run . It was 1459 hours . Aerial engagement . The four Gnats separated into two sections and dived into the attack to bounce the Sabres . The first section of Gnats was of Massey and Fg Offr SF Soarez as his No . 2 . The second section consisted of Flt Lt MA Ganapathy and Fg Offr D Lazarus . As the Gnats dived in , a section of two Sabres pulled out of the attack and placed themselves in an awkward position , just in front of Ganapathy and Lazarus . Ganapathy called out on the R / T " Murder Murder Murder " . Both the pilots did not waste time on this perfect opportunity . Cannon shells slammed into the pair of Sabres and both the Sabres were badly damaged . The Pakistani pilots Parvez Mehdi Qureshi and Khaleel Ahmed had only one option - to eject . They drifted down to Boyra by parachute . The wreckage of the abandoned Sabres fell near the village of Bongaon . Massey , in the meantime , pulled up over Ganapathy and Lazarus to latch onto another Sabre . The Sabre pilot , Wg . Cdr Chaudhury - in a skillful dogfighting move - broke into Massey ' s attack forcing him to take a high angle - off burst . He missed his target . Taking aim , Massey let off another burst at and hit him in the port wing . By that time , Massey ' s starboard cannon had stopped firing , but the Sabre streaked back into Pakistani territory billowing smoke and fire . Massey himself realised that he was well over East Pakistani airspace in his chase . He turned around and regrouped with the rest of his formation . Later reports confirmed that Massey ' s victim , Wg . Cdr Chaudhury , showing considerable courage , had managed to fly his badly damaged Sabre back to Tezgaon Airfield just outside Dhaka . Chaudhury himself claimed to have shot down one of the Gnats .