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Enter the Iranian Helicopters
On 27th September 1973, General Tikka Khan issued his directive for counter insurgency operations in Marri area code named Operation 'Red Hot'.
It was a three phase operation in which six armed Bell UH-1H helicopters of Iran along with one Chinook CH-47 were also made available to Lieutenant General Awan.
These helicopters initially came to Pakistan for flood relief assistance in August 1973.
Iranian pilots namely Major Haqi, Captain Daud, Lieutenants Artum, Mahmood and Mabzoom operated from Dhamial and were later shifted to Quetta. Iranian helicopters reached Quetta on 20th September 1973. They were lodged in EME Mess and helicopters were parked at Samungli. It was same time when Gurkha Airfield was being expanded to accommodate bigger helicopters.
On 23rd November 1973 these helicopters took part in the operation when they lifted the troops from Quetta to Sibi area. According to Major Zareef Bangash who was the Allouette pilot. "A firing demonstration was held at the PAF firing ranges near Quetta which was witnessed by the senior army commanders. This was the first exposure of Pakistan Army with the gunship".
The very first Pakistani aviator to fly with these Iranians was Captain Ashraf of 3 Squadron. He recalls; "One
day I was sitting in the mess when Colonel Bokhari told me to go and act as a safety pilot with the Iranians,
at that time there was no specific chain of command thus I in my heart cursed the mission but went to the
Samungli Base where I had to guide the CH-47 to the proposed target area for reconnaissance. During the
sortie there was not much of talking and quietly we went to the area and came back, contrary to the common
belief the Iranians were not that good in English and I gave all the calls".
These helicopters also took part in humanitarian relief work. Brigadier Qurban who was then major recalls 'I was part of 3 Squadron and we were living in the Mental Ward of Combined Military Hospital Quetta where we had a long barrack at our disposal. I Once flew as a liaison officer with these Iranians to drop relief goods at Gwadar, my role was to coordinate the air traffic communication."
Iranian CH-47 Goes Missing
These helicopters were also employed at Khuzdar, where the Brigade Commander was Brigadier Fazl e Haq(later lieutenant general &Governor Frontier Province). Major Zareef has something to add in this regard
"One CH-47 attached with Khuzdar Brigade one day took off and went missing, it was real crisis to locate it, after some time it was reported that it had landed at Karachi International. Next morning they flew back to Quetta later it was revealed that they got the permission from the local battalion commander for weekend and proceeded to Karachi."
Operation Brown River (Kohlu-Sibi Sector)
To keep the area open to communication, a road had to be constructed which was to pass through the stronghold of Marri and Kahan tribes. An operation was undertaken on 23rd November 1973 in which a major force was lifted by means of helicopters.
4 Squadron Digest of Service records "All pilots with two MI-8 of the squadron flew to Sibi. It was a large concentration of helicopters, two CH-47 Chinooks, three Jet Ranger, three UH-1D of Imperial Iranian Air Force apart from two MI-8, three Allouette and two L-19 of Pakistan Army Aviation took part in this operation".
Four infantry battalions were employed to clear Kahan and Kala Khu. In the evening the force was again heli lifted back to the base. Colonel Zareef Bangash was around and remembers; "All the aircraft including the Iranians were parked at Sibi.
Less the CH-47, all the other Iranian choppers were armed with the cannons and rockets.
At 0500 hours I took off from Sibi having Chief of Army Staff(COAS) General Tikka on board with me. It was quite demanding to control all these helicopters. We had the briefing a night ago on the flying sequence, thus we had red, green, and blue formation of aircraft and we were heading for a mission which was not pleasant from any aspect.
After the ordeal of East Pakistan it was not only my endeavour but of all the aviators who had served there to make sure that there was no innocent casualty.
I had given the firm orders on behalf of field commander that Iranians will not open fire without our orders but in a fluid situation any thing could happen and that was precisely my worst fear.
It was a sight to see almost a dozen aircraft flying in formation towards the target, we had the Pakistani pilots sitting in all the Iranian helicopters. The plan was that the gunship would encircle the habitat and if they found the rebels, would open fire and then the assaulting troops would land there. As we crept close to the target the first burst was fired by the Jet Ranger on a mud plastered house and I think this came as a shock to the locals as never before they had been fired upon from helicopters. Soon I could see the dust rising and then few more rounds were fired, after the main troops landed we found the area totally destroyed but surprisingly there were very few casualties".
