top of page
Search

Nagpur’s Missing Pilot of 1971: The Unanswered Story of Flt Lt Vijay Tambay

Nagpur’s Missing Pilot of 1971: The Unanswered Story of Flt Lt Vijay Tambay
Nagpur’s Missing Pilot of 1971: The Unanswered Story of Flt Lt Vijay Tambay

Flight Lieutenant Vijay Vasant Tambay was a bright young pilot from Nagpur, in Maharashtra’s Vidarbha region, who vanished during India’s 1971 war with Pakistan.


He hailed from a family with a distinguished service history. His father, Vasant Tambay, had been in India’s first batch of civil service officers and even served in the Royal Air Force. Vijay Tambay graduated from the National Defence Academy and was commissioned into the Indian Air Force in 1963.


By 1971, he was a seasoned fighter pilot in No. 32 Squadron, based at Ambala, flying Su-7 aircraft. He married Damayanti Subedar, a national badminton champion, in April 1970. She later became an Arjuna Awardee, but her greatest mission after 1971 was to find her missing husband.


On 3 December 1971, Tambay saw his wife off at Ambala before heading to war. As the Indo-Pakistani conflict broke out, he flew multiple deep-strike missions into enemy territory. On 5 December, he took off again in Su-7 B-839 on a daylight raid against the heavily defended Shorkot airbase (also known as Rafiqui Airfield) in then-West Pakistan.


Squadron Leader V.K. Bhatia led that two-plane strike, with Tambay as No. 2. The airfield was ringed by anti-aircraft guns. During their attack run, Vijay Tambay flew low to inflict maximum damage. Indian reports say he was hit by flak. His aircraft caught fire, and he ejected.


He was officially listed as killed in action on the same day.

Almost immediately, however, hopes emerged that Tambay had survived. Pakistan’s Radio Pakistan broadcast the names of Indian prisoners of war, and among them, Tambay’s name was called.


The Pakistan Observer (then published in Dhaka) reported on 5 December that five Indian pilots had been captured, including one named “Tombay”, a clear misspelling of Tambay.


Within days, India issued a missing-in-action telegram for Tambay. Damayanti Tambay, then a young newlywed, heard of the Pakistan radio list and believed it meant her husband lived. She and her family grasped this shred of news with hope.


In December 1971, the government officially amended his status to “missing” (later changing it to “killed in action”), but his loved ones continued to push that he was alive in Pakistan.



Mission and disappearance


The specifics of Tambay’s last moments are drawn from squadron records and witness accounts. On that morning of 5 December, Tambay climbed into Su-7 Tail No. 839 at Ambala. The strike package carried out a first pass on Rafiqui airfield without loss. During the second wave, Vijay flew low over the target to inflict heavy damage.


Pakistani anti-aircraft defences opened up. His wingman saw Tambay’s aircraft burst into flames. He ejected from his cockpit as the plane descended into the fields outside the base. In theory, this should have saved his life.

After ejecting, Tambay would have come down behind enemy lines. Exactly what happened next is the heart of the mystery. India’s official position was that Tambay was killed in action. The Air Force placed him on the list of missing personnel after his radio contact was lost.


But Pakistani sources hinted at another fate. The same morning, reports filtered through that several Indian airmen were in Pakistani hands. The Pakistan Observer specifically mentioned “Flt Lt Tombay” among five captured pilots. This news was widely repeated on Pakistani radio and was shocking to Tambay’s family.


Within days, Indian headquarters warned the family not to expect Tambay home soon; he was listed as missing and presumed dead. His wife, Damayanti and his mother clung to the information from Pakistan. They believed he had ejected and been taken prisoner, rather than killed in the crash.


No photograph or live confirmation was given by Pakistan. Instead, videotape of several Indian prisoners of war was aired in the years after the war, including in 1972 when repatriation was announced.


Damayanti scoured these broadcasts and interviews, looking for any sign of her husband. She also petitioned politicians and diplomats in the 1970s to use their influence.


Her father-in-law reached out even to Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto, who had been Vasant Tambay’s classmate before Partition, but the Pakistani government always denied holding any surviving Indian pilots.

India’s own 1979 parliamentary record listed Tambay among the “Missing in Action” and later “Killed in Action” personnel of the 1971 war. Officially, he became part of the enduring mystery of the “Missing 54”, India’s soldiers believed alive but never returned from the 1971 conflict.



Clues from captivity


Over the decades since the war, scattered clues have kept Tambay’s family convinced he remained alive long after 1971. Fellow prisoners of war later told interrogators that Tambay was among those sent to civilian jails.


A retired Pakistani naval officer, once jailed in East Pakistan and later in India, said he saw an Indian pilot named Tambay locked up in his prison. These second-hand accounts could not be verified, but they reinforced the family’s hope.

The most striking confirmation came in January 1989. Jayant Jatar, Tambay’s uncle and an official on the Indian junior cricket team touring Pakistan, quietly arranged to meet General Tikka Khan (then Pakistan’s Punjab governor).

Khan surprised Jatar by agreeing to a private visit. Pakistani military escorts drove Jatar to a jail in Faisalabad (then Lyallpur), where they led him down a long hall. There, Jatar saw a pilot in a white kurta reading a newspaper. When Jatar coughed softly, the man turned, and Jatar recognised his nephew Vijay Tambay. The prisoner had grown a beard, but he was visibly the same.


Jatar said Tambay was calm and appeared well-treated. The encounter was brief and silent. The jailers whisked Jatar away before he could speak. But the meeting confirmed that Tambay was indeed in Pakistani custody long after 1971.


For twenty years, Jatar kept the meeting secret, telling only his immediate family. In 2002, after Tikka Khan’s death, Jatar finally went public with the story. It was then known that Pakistan had never returned dozens of Indian captives. Tambay’s case became emblematic of all those missing airmen and soldiers.


In 1979, India released Pakistan’s 93,000 prisoners of war, and Pakistan released over 50,000 Indians.


Tambay’s family believes that in that heady victory, the Indian government could have insisted on the repatriation of the surviving POWs still held.


But India did not, so about 60 Indian soldiers and airmen remained unaccounted for when exchanges ended.


The official count of Missing 54 includes Tambay and four other Indian pilots reportedly taken prisoner on 5 December.

Pakistan has consistently denied holding any such Indians. India’s government remains officially committed to finding them, but over the years, progress has been limited.



A widow’s vigil


Since the war, Damayanti Tambay has devoted her life to finding her husband. Widowed at just 26, she gave up her own sporting career after 1971 to campaign tirelessly. For decades, she petitioned successive prime ministers and defence ministers of India. In the early 1980s, foreign minister P.V. Narasimha Rao personally assured her that when relatives visited Pakistan, authorities would identify the POWs under assumed names.


She accompanied families of other missing servicemen on visits to Pakistani jails in 1983 and again in 2007, both times hoping to see her husband among inmates.

Both visits ended in frustration. In Lahore and Multan jails, officials bluntly told her, “Tambay is not here.” She saw other jailed soldiers, but not him. On those trips, she was only allowed to speak with jailers and not view all prisoners. Later, she was told many detainees were kept hidden. These trips yielded no reunion.


Damayanti Tambay still lives in hope. In interviews, she has said her life’s rog (obsession) is finding out what happened to her husband.


Every few years, she renews appeals at home and abroad. When questioned by the media, she has displayed quiet determination rather than blame: “Missing soldiers and their families mean nothing, no one cares about them,” she said in 2024.


Her words underscore a deep sense of frustration with stalled diplomacy. Through it all, she has kept a shrine at home with his photograph and letters he wrote before going to the front. Her resolve echoes his courage: as she told a journalist, “For me, he was everything and vice versa. If I don’t look out for him, who will?”


Today, more than half a century after 5 December 1971, Vijay Tambay’s fate remains unknown.

In Nagpur, Vidarbha, and across India, his story is remembered every year on “Balidan Diwas” (Sacrifice Day), the anniversary of the 1971 war.


News reports on war anniversaries recall Tambay as a son of the soil still missing in foreign jails. His case continues alongside those of the other missing Indian POWs, whose families hold on to the belief that there will be answers one day. Until then, the determination of his wife, Damayanti and his family keeps Vijay Tambay’s name alive in the public eye, even as the larger political stalemate endures.



References




About the Author

The NewsDirt is a trusted source for authentic, ground-level journalism, highlighting the daily struggles, public issues, history, and local stories from Vidarbha’s cities, towns, and villages. Committed to amplifying voices often ignored by mainstream media, we bring you reliable, factual, and impactful reporting from Vidarbha’s grassroots.

bottom of page