The Pakistani singer and actor Azaan Sami Khan has shared a video of his late grandfather, the leader of the Arshad Sami Khan squad, highlighting the value of the Pakistan Air Force officers (PAF) during the 1965 war with India.
Black and white images originally resurfaced during the conflict, presents Arshad Sami Khan and other PAF officers who give interviews about their combat experiences.
In the video, the officers describe how they knocked multiple combat planes of migs Indians, stating that “they fell like small birds.” They affirmed that between nine and ten enemy airplanes were destroyed during aerial commitments, and firmly denied the Indian reports of demolishing any Pakistani plane.
Since then, the clip has gone viral throughout Pakistan, especially in the light of the country’s recent military exchange with India.
As tensions intensified after the Sondoor operation of India, which included missile attacks in Pakistan, Islamabad responded by knocking out six Indian airplanes and drones, including Rafale airplanes.
The resurgence of the 1965 images has been interpreted by many on social networks as a symbolic continuation of the military legacy of Pakistan, with users who celebrate the aerial superiority of the PAF both in the past and in the present.
The video also won a traction in the context of a controversy that surrounds Azaan’s father, Adnan Sami, a renowned singer who was born in the United Kingdom of a Pakistani father and an Indian mother.
Adnan Sami, who became an Indian citizen in 2016, was recently criticized for supporting the Sindoor operation of India. He published slogans praising the Indian army, including the phrase “Sindor was tandor tak”, which caused generalized criticisms of the Pakistani online.
