The Pakistan Air Force (PAF) Shaheens were presented with national honours for their aerial performance in the recent conflict against India as part of Pakistan’s 79th Independence Day celebrations on Thursday.
In July, Planning Minister Ahsan Iqbal said this year’s Independence Day would be marked as “Marka-i-Haq” (Battle of Truth). The term is used by the state for the conflict with India from the April 22 Pahalgam attack to the end of Operation Bunyanum Marsoos with a ceasefire on May 10. The May conflict was sparked as New Delhi blamed Islamabad for the attack without evidence — a claim strongly refuted by Pakistan. On May 6–7, New Delhi launched air strikes that killed civilians. In retaliation, PAF downed six Indian planes in air-to-air combat on May 7. India’s highest-ranking general has also acknowledged that its forces suffered losses in the air, but denied losing six aircraft.
At a ceremony in Islamabad today, the awards, including both wartime and peacetime honours, were conferred by President Asif Ali Zardari and Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif.
According to Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR), eight Sitara-i-Jurat (Star of Courage), five Tamgha-i-Jurat (Medal of Courage), 24 Sitara-i-Basalat (Star of Valour), 45 Tamgha-i-Basalat (Medal of Valour), 146 Imtiazi Asnad (mentioned in the Dispatches of senior commanders), 259 COAS Commendation Cards and one Tamgha-i-Imtiaz (Military) (Medal of Excellence) were awarded to both officers and enlisted men.
Of the total, the following list includes the names and honours awarded to the PAF:
Sitara-i-Jurat
- Wing Commander Bilal Raza General Duty Pilot (GDP)
- Wing Commander Hammad Ibne Masood, GDP
- Squadron Leader M. Yousaf Khan, GDP
- Squadron Leader Muhammad Osama Ishfaq, GDP
- Squadron Leader Muhammad Hassan Anees, GDP
- Squadron Leader Talal Hassan, GDP
- Squadron Leader Fida Muhammad Khan, GDP
- Flight Lieutenant Muhammad Ashhad Amir, GDP
Sitara-i-Basalat
- Air Vice Marshal Muhammad Ehsan Ulhaq, GDP
- Air Vice Marshal Aurangzeb Ahmed, GDP
- Air Commodore Attaullah Zeb, GDP
- Air Commodore Zia Aftab, GDP
- Air Commodore Muhammad Noman Ali Khan, GDP
- Air Commodore Ali Javed Hashmi, Engineer (Engg)
- Air Commodore Sajjad Haider, AD
Tamgha-i-Basalat
- Squadron Leader Usman Yousaf, (shaheed) Engg
- Air Commodore Adeel Shahab Qureshi, GDP
- Air Commodore Farhan Zia, GDP
- Air Commodore Jehanzeb Burki, Engg
- Air Commodore Azhar Hasan, Engg
- Air Commodore Rana Ilyas Hassan, Air Defence (AD)
- Air Commodore Syed Muhammad Kamran Abid, AD
- Group Captain Muhammad Salman, AD
- Wing Commander Wajeeh Ullah Mian, GDP
- Wing Commander Muhammad Shafaat Saeed, GDP
- Wing Commander Malik Rizwan-Ul-Haq Iftikhar, GDP
- Wing Commander Haider Ijaz, GDP
- Wing Commander Junaid Azam, GDP
- Wing Commander Awais Nazir, GDP
- Squadron Leader Jibran Rashid, GDP
- Squadron Leader Kashif Bashir, GDP
- Squadron Leader Hassaan Khan, GDP
- Squadron Leader Muhammad Zeeshan, GDP
- Squadron Leader Muhammad Saad, GDP
- Squadron Leader Saad Arif, Engg
- Squadron Leader Aamir Ghafoor, AD
- Squadron Leader Muhammad Arqam Raees, AD
- Flight Lieutenant Muhammad Nouman Shafique, GDP
Imtiazi Sanad
- Senior Technician Muhammad Ayaz (shaheed)
- Senior Technician Najeeb Sultan (shaheed)
- Chief Technician Muhammad Aurangzeb (shaheed)
- Senior Technician Mubashir Javed (shaheed)
- Corporal Technician Farooq Ahmad (shaheed)
- Air Commodore Syed Nabeel Masood, GDP
- Air Commodore Irfan Rasul Ghauri, GDP
- Air Commodore Abdul Ghaffar Buzdar, GDP
- Air Commodore Mudassar Arshad Malhi, GDP
- Group Captain Muhammad Saleem Raza, GDP
- Group Captain Muhammad Jawad Azim, GDP
- Group Captain Ameer Hamza Mehdi, GDP
- Group Captain Farhan Ahmed, GDP
- Group Captain Umair Ali AD
- Wing Commander Qasim Khan, GDP
- Wing Commander Muhammad Umair Riaz, GDP
- Wing Commander Muhammad Safyan Azad, GDP
- Wing Commander Muhammad Waqas Rasheed, GDP
- Wing Commander Umar Farooq, GDP
- Wing Commander Engineer Muhammad Faisal
- Wing Commander Imran Atif AD
- Wing Commander Asim Ali Shah Edu
- Squadron Leader Abdur Rehman, GDP
- Squadron Leader Zaeem Khalid, GDP
- Squadron Leader Muslim Raza, GDP
- Squadron Leader Zeshan Muhammad, GDP
- Squadron Leader Muhammad Umair Raza, GDP
- Squadron Leader Shaiq Ashraf, GDP
- Squadron Leader Muhammad Umar Ahmad, GDP
- Squadron Leader Makhdoom Muhammad Sami, GDP
- Squadron Leader Yasir Akram, GDP
- Squadron Leader Junaid Amjad Siddique, GDP
- Squadron Leader Mudassar Javed, GDP
- Squadron Leader Abdur Rehman Khan, GDP
- Squadron Leader Hassam Hassan, GDP
- Squadron Leader Abdul Rafay, GDP
- Squadron Leader Adnan Akram, GDP
- Squadron Leader Ali Qasim, GDP
- Squadron Leader M. Muneeb ul Hassan, GDP
- Squadron Leader Saroosh Haider, GDP
- Squadron Leader Sikandar Waseem, GDP
- Squadron Leader Hassam Ashfaq, GDP
- Squadron Leader Engineer Asfandyar Awan
- Squadron Leader Engineer Ammar Hussain Farooqi
- Squadron Leader Engineer Faizan Ul Haq Rajput
- Squadron Leader Engineer Noman Hydair
- Squadron Leader Muhammad Abid AD
- Squadron Leader Sulaman Ishtiaq Satti AD
- Squadron Leader Junaid Ahmed AD
- Squadron Leader Atta Ullah Sahibzada AD
- Squadron Leader Zia Ur Rehman AD
- Squadron Leader Nadeem Anwer Nadeem Admin and Special Duties (A&SD)
- Squadron Leader Muhammad Danish Iqbal A&SD
- Squadron Leader Majid Shehzad IT
- Squadron Leader Muhammad Azhar Latif Met
- Squadron Leader Rizwan Karim MES
- Flight Lieutenant Engineer Muhammad Sarosh
- Flight Lieutenant Engineer Rana Muhammad Hasan
- Flight Lieutenant Engineer Muhammad Usman
- Flight Lieutenant Engineer Muhammad Zarar Hashmi
- Flight Lieutenant Muhammad Yahya Haider A&SD
- Flight Lieutenant Usama Khalid A&SD
- Flying Officer Engineer Tabassum Hussain
- Flying Officer Engineer Muhammad Hassaan Nasir
- CWO Ikram Khan
- CWO M Ashraf Khan
- CWO Muhammad Majid
- CWO Shahid Kamran Khan
- WO Muhammad Azam
- AWO Muhammad Adnan
- Chief Technician Sami Ullah
- Chief Technician Samander Khan
- Chief Technician Muhammad Aleem
- Chief Technician Muhammad Ashraf
- Senior Technician Waseem
- Senior Technician Arshad Mobeen
- Senior Technician Asghar Ali
- Senior Technician Ihsan Ullah
- Senior Technician Muhammad Imran
While describing Pakistan’s response to the Indian Air Force, PAF Director General Public Relations Air Vice Marshal Aurangzeb Ahmed on May 12 said the PAF’s response was based “on the time and place of own choosing”, displaying “bold, aggressive and unwavering resolve of the brave military leadership”.
Last month, Chinese air force chief Lieutenant General Wang Gang lauded the “exemplary performance” during the aerial clash, praising the “decisive and measured response delivered by PAF pilots under the resolute leadership of the air chief”.
Last week, in response to claims that India had shot down Pakistani aircraft, Defence Minister Khawaja Asif noted that “not a single Pakistani aircraft was hit or destroyed” by India, adding that Pakistan took out six Indian jets, S400 air defence batteries and unmanned aircraft of India while “swiftly putting several Indian airbases out of action”.
France’s air chief, General Jerome Bellanger, has previously said that he has seen evidence of the loss of three Indian fighters, including a Rafale. The Indian Air Force has not commented on those claims.
Days after the air combat, The Washington Post, based on visual evidence analysed by experts, reported that at least two French-made Indian fighter aircraft were shot down by the Pakistan Air Force.
According to The Wire, India’s defence attache to Indonesia, Indian Navy Captain Shiv Kumar, while speaking at a seminar in June, acknowledged that the PAF downed the Indian fighters.
During his presentation at the event, Kumar had acknowledged the loss of Indian planes. According to Kumar, Indian fighter jets were “operating under strict political orders from the Modi government not to target Pakistani military installations or air defence systems”, The Wire reported.
“This self-imposed limitation by the government was intended to prevent escalation of conflict in a nuclear environment,” the outlet added, quoting the Indian officer.
India’s intelligence failure was central to the hour-long air battle between Pakistan and India, which led to the downing of Rafale aircraft by the Pakistan Air Force’s J-10 fighters using PL-15s missiles, according to a report.
Reuters interviews with two Indian officials and three of their Pakistani counterparts found that the performance of the Rafale wasn’t the key problem: central to its downing was an Indian intelligence failure concerning the range of the China-made PL-15 missile fired by the J-10 fighter. China and Pakistan are the only countries to operate both J-10s, known as Vigorous Dragons, and PL-15s.
The faulty intelligence gave the Rafale pilots a false sense of confidence that they were out of Pakistani firing distance, which they believed was only around 150km, the Indian officials said, referring to the widely cited range of PL-15’s export variant.
“We ambushed them,” the PAF official said, adding that Islamabad conducted an electronic warfare assault on Delhi’s systems in an attempt to confuse Indian pilots. Indian officials dispute the effectiveness of those efforts.
“The Indians were not expecting to be shot at,” said Justin Bronk, air warfare expert at London’s Royal United Services Institute think-tank. “And the PL-15 is clearly very capable at long range.” The PL-15 that hit the Rafale was fired from around 200km away, according to Pakistani officials, and even farther according to Indian officials. That would make it among the longest-range air-to-air strikes recorded.