This sitting Indian CM was killed by Pakistani fighter plane during…, his name was….

When the 1965 war between India and Pakistan was at its peak, prominent Congress leader and then Gujarat sitting Chief Minister Balwantrai Gopalji Mehta was travelling in a chopper. There were eight people in the chopper. When the chopper was flying near the Indo-Pak border in the Rann of Kutch, the Pakistani Air Force shot it down accidentally. The PAF mistook the helicopter for an Indian reconnaissance aircraft.

All the eight persons, including the sitting   CM of Gujarat Balwantrai Gopalji Mehta, his wife Sarojben, three staff members, a journalist and two crew members were killed in the attack. Mehta halted in Mithapur before flying to Kutch border. Minutes after taking off from Mithapur, his chopper was intercepted and attacked by Pak fighter jet.

The Pak fighter jet was flown by pilot named Qais Hussain, as per India Today. 25-year-old Hussain hovered around the aircraft and waited for the permission from Pakistani ground control inception.

A Pakistani fighter jet fired two volleys at an aircraft after the aircraft signaled a request for release, following a visual identification of the Pakistani plane. Mehta’s aircraft crashed onto the ground after the attack.

Balwantrai Mehta

Balwantrai Mehta was a veteran congress leader and was known as the ‘architect of Panchayati Raj’ in the country. He was born in February 19, 1900 in a middle class family. he studied upto BA but didn’t take a degree from the British Government. In the year 1920, Balwantrai joined the national movement of non-cooperation which was led by Mahatma Gandhi.

In 1942, Mehta’s participation in the Indian independence movement resulted in a three-year prison sentence imposed by the British authorities.

He became Gujarat’s Chief Minister in 1963, several years after the state gained independence.

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