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He passed out from PMA on 28th August 1971 and was posted to his unit 6FF. He was only 20 years old when he was sent to front line as a 2nd Lieutenant. He never participated in any battle or exercise, but he was lucky to have guidance of his Company Commander Major Shabbir Sharif.
3 December 1971
Sulemanki Sector
The young man was assigned the task to attack Bairy Wala Bridge with his 12 soldiers and capture it as soon as possible. This bridge had the key importance regarding the defense of Saboona Ridge and it was necessary to capture it at any cost, in order to have a strong hold in this sector. This bridge was guarded by a company of enemy and had the cover of two concrete bunkers with machine guns. Moreover, there were 11 pillars of the bridge, each having 40 KG of explosive tied to it. Just a push of a button was enough to shatter the bridge into pieces
The Lieutenant advanced towards the target, when he was about 200 meters away from the target he observed with binoculars that are 2 bunkers and number of soldiers on the bridge. He came closer to bridge and ordered to open fire. One enemy soldier got hit and fell into the stream flowing below the bridge. The bunkers started intense machine gun fire. Now he and his company took position and started advancing further, raising the slogans of Allah-o-Akbar. When they were about to reach the bridge, 6 of the Pakistani soldiers got hit by the enemy machine gun and rest of them kept advancing under the rain of bullets. They kept crawling until they reached the dead arc of the machine gun. The lieutenant tried to fire in the bunker by putting his Sten Gun in the fox hole, but it proved to be useless. The whole magazine was emptied but the machine guns kept firing. Meanwhile, the enemy also realized that there is someone outside the bunker. So, a grenade was thrown out but this was a delayed action grenade and it rolled down from the slope without exploding. Now the Lieutenant got an idea and threw a grenade inside the bunker and the machine guns stop firing; in the meantime, the other bunker was cleared by rest of his fellows.
The action was so rapid that the enemy had no chance to blow the bridge . The capture of bridge proved to be the key to success in this sector and later, Major Shabbir captured the remaining sector.
Today the world knows the brave Second Lieutenant as 2nd Lieutenant Farooq Afzal (Later Brigadier Farooq Afzal). He was awarded Tamgha e Jurrat for his act of valor.
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tail-section of a SU-7, piloted by Flight Lieutenant Ramesh Kadam, of the IAF's TACDE, downed on 8ᵗʰ December 1971, over Risalewala, by Wing Commander SMH Hashmi, OC 23 Sqn "Talons", flying in an F-6. https://t.co/wqNNnyZOGr
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tail-section of a SU-7, piloted by Flight Lieutenant Ramesh Kadam, of the IAF's TACDE, downed on 8ᵗʰ December 1971, over Risalewala, by Wing Commander SMH Hashmi, OC 23 Sqn "Talons", flying in an F-6. https://t.co/wqNNnyZOGrView attachment 700136
Flight Lieutenant Afzal Jamal Siddiqui
Sitara-e-Basalat
23 Sqn "Talons"
8 December 1971

died in a tragic 'blue-on-blue' incident when his F-6 was downed by his squadron commander during a chase of bandit Su-7s, near Faisalabad. https://t.co/BxcvUKxwqL
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Flight Lieutenant Afzal Jamal Siddiqui
Sitara-e-Basalat
23 Sqn "Talons"
8 December 1971

died in a tragic 'blue-on-blue' incident when his F-6 was downed by his squadron commander during a chase of bandit Su-7s, near Faisalabad. https://t.co/BxcvUKxwqL
View attachment 700141
SU-7 and F6 looked alike and the radio was not working properly. Hashmi mistook Afzal's F6 as the 2nd SU-7 that they were chasing, assuming that Afzal was behind him, not in front of him https://t.co/xv5rYLOolf
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Meet Sqn Leader Farooq haider,the most based air defence controller ever.
During 71 war IAF had the ability to hear convo b/w PAF pilots and controllers.
On 7th December,1971 he saw a blip on his radar scope,it was a Folland Gnat of IAF going back to his base in Amritsar... https://t.co/V63xf1iwfZ
IMG_20201227_172652.jpeg
 
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Meet Sqn Leader Farooq haider,the most based air defence controller ever.
During 71 war IAF had the ability to hear convo b/w PAF pilots and controllers.
On 7th December,1971 he saw a blip on his radar scope,it was a Folland Gnat of IAF going back to his base in Amritsar... https://t.co/V63xf1iwfZ
View attachment 700393
Go to link for interesting details
 
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