New Delhi: The first batch of women fighter pilots will be inducted in the Indian Air Force on June 18. IAF chief Air Chief Marshal Arup Raha said three women trainee officers have volunteered to be trained for combat role.
“We inducted women as pilots in 1991 but only on helicopter and transport (planes). I must thank the Defence Minister for having approved the IAF’s proposal to induct women as fighter pilots. Three women trainees are in the second phase of their training. The passing out parade is scheduled on June 18,” the IAF chief said.
The three women cadets to be inducted as fighter pilots are Bhawana Kanth, Avani Chaturvedi and Mohana Singh.
Meanwhile, for the first time in the counter-insurgency in India, women commandos have been given the combat role in the ongoing battle between security forces and Left-Wing extremists in Chhattisgarh’s conflict zone of Bastar.
A senior police officer in Raipur, requesting anonymity, told this newspaper that women commandos had taken part in at least three recent counter-insurgency operations in south Bastar “on an experimental basis”.
