Bhawana Kanth becomes 1st woman pilot of IAF to qualify to undertake combat missions
New Delhi, May 22: Scripting history, Flight Lieutenant Bhawana Kanth on Wednesday became the first woman pilot of the Indian Air Force to qualify to undertake combat missions on a fighter jet.
IAF officials said Kanth has completed operational syllabus for carrying out combat missions on Mig-21 Bison aircraft during day time.
"She is the first woman fighter pilot to be qualified to undertake missions by day on a fighter aircraft," IAF Spokesperson Group Capt Anupam Banerjee said.
At present, Bhawana is posted at the Nal base in Bikaner.
Another official said she will be allowed to carry out night operations once she completes training for night missions.
Bhawana joined the fighter squadron in November 2017 and flew the first solo on MiG-21 Bison in March last year.
"With her dedication, hard work and perseverance she has become the first woman officer of the IAF to achieve this feat," said Group Capt Banerjee.
She is from the first batch of women fighter pilots of the IAF.
Three women Kanth, Avani Chaturvedi and Mohana Singh were commissioned as flying officers in July 2016, less than a year after the government decided to open the fighter stream for women on an experimental basis.
The IAF has already selected the next batch of three women trainee pilots for the fighter stream.
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7 held for running fake call centre in South Kolkata
Kolkata (PTI): Seven people were arrested from the Parnashree area in the southern part of the city for allegedly running a fake call centre, a police officer said on Saturday.
Acting on a tip-off, police raided a house on Netaji Subhas Road on Friday night and found the fake call centre operating from the ground floor, he said.
Preliminary investigation revealed that the accused had set up a bogus company using forged documents and posed as employees of an antivirus firm to call citizens in the US, the officer said.
"The callers would gain the trust of victims and then use remote access to take control of their phones or other digital devices. The accused allegedly siphoned off large sums of money, running into millions of dollars, from victims' accounts," he said.
Five laptops, two WiFi routers, six mobile phones and four headsets were seized from the accused, he said, adding that the seven are being questioned to ascertain the full extent of the racket and to identify others involved.
