5,000 join Sekhon IAF Marathon in Chandigarh to honour Param Vir Chakra hero

CHANDIGARH: The Sekhon Indian Air Force Marathon – 2026, organised in the memory of Flying Officer Nirmal Jit Singh Sekhon — the IAF’s sole Param Vir Chakra (PVC) recipient — was held in Chandigarh on Sunday, with about 5,000 people joining the event.

Fitness enthusiasts, professional athletes, serving personnel, veterans, students and youth from Chandigarh, Panchkula, Mohali and adjoining areas, participated with enthusiasm.

The event, conducted in several categories with different distances and age groups, honoured Flying Officer Sekhon’s supreme sacrifice, courage and unwavering commitment to the Nation, while promoting fitness, discipline and National spirit.

During the 1971 India-Pakistan War, Sekhon, hailing from Ludhiana and then just 28 years old, was deployed at the Srinagar airbase with No 18 Squadron, the Flying Bullets.

On December 14, Sekhon, along with another officer, scrambled to counter an attack by Pakistan aircraft and shot three enemy Sabre jets in aerial combat. His own aircraft was hit and he went down. For his actions, he was decorated posthumously with the highest gallantry award.

No.18 squadron was formed on April 15, 1965, with Gnat fighter aircraft and first saw action during the 1971 war when it was tasked with defending the Kashmir Valley, where it was conferred the Battle Honours for its operational performance.

The Squadron was de-commissioned or ‘number-plated’, as it is called in Air Force terminology, in 2015 after the MiG-27 aircraft that it was equipped with at the time were decommissioned. It was resurrected in April 2020, at Sulur Air Force Station in Tamil Nadu on the indigenous Tejas Mk-1 fighter and later relocated to Naliya airbase in Gujarat.

Air Marshal George Thomas, Air Officer Commanding-in-Chief, Western Air Command, was the Chief Guest. Jointly organised by the IAF and Chandigarh Administration in the run-up to the Air Force Day that falls on October 8, the marathon reinforced Military-Civil synergy and contributed to Fit India movement, a defence spokesperson said.