Brave 300 rebuilt Bhuj runway in just 72 hours in 1971

Time of India

10-05-2025

Vadodara/Bhuj: On the night of Dec 8 during the 1971 Indo-Pak war, a squadron of jets from the Pakistan Air Force dropped 64 bombs on the Indian Air Force (IAF) airstrip in Bhuj, Gujarat.
Damaged in eight places, the runway was rendered useless, leaving Indian warplanes no way to take off as the fighting peaked. That was when 300 courageous women from Madhapar, a village 5km from Bhuj, decided to step out. In just 72 hours, the women rebuilt the airfield which had been raided 35 times in 14 days, being struck by 92 bombs and 22 rockets. "In just three days, they rebuilt the Bhuj airstrip and made it operational again. Making Bhuj operational was vital as it was an important airbase. The story of these 300 women, the 'Jhansi Ki Ranis of Madhapar', who worked fearlessly amid continual bombardment must be included in our history books," said retired Wing Commander Vijay Karnik, the real-life hero of the film 'Bhuj'. As markets in Bhuj were closed on Saturday amid the rising tensions between India and Pakistan, Karnik, who was the base commander in 1971, said Pakistan had planned to destroy Bhuj airfield to isolate and capture Kutch. "From the Bhuj sector, we were striking at Karachi. The war was at its peak. Sawai Bhawani Singh, the Maharaja of Jaipur, who was commanding the 10 Para Brigade (special forces), also came to Bhuj after capturing half of Sindh province," he said. "They (Pakistan) started bombing from the very beginning... from Dec 3 onwards. On Dec 6, we shot down their aircraft over Bhuj, which further rattled them. On the night of Dec 8, they planned a concentrated attack. The PAF's B57 aircraft dropped 64 bombs. Each plane carried eight 1,000-pounder bombs," he said. "Our runway was severely damaged. The bombing was such that everybody in Bhuj town started evacuating the town," he said. "Even the contractor and labourers, who would repair smaller damage earlier, had fled. We put the repair machinery and material 200 feet to the side of the runway, but no one dared go near the strip," he said. "It was then that these 300 women from Madhapar, armed with nothing but patriotism, took up the practically impossible task of repairing the airstrip," he said, adding that the women were briefed on how to take shelter during bomb raids and hide under bushes. "They were daring to adhere to the instructions. They remade the runway very quickly, making our base operational again," he said. Seventy-three-year-old Harji Madhaparia, who was 19 then, says he was at a college function when he heard the sounds of low-flying jets. "We thought they were IAF jets. It was only after a few hours that we realized the airport had been bombed," said Madhaparia, who had enrolled in the Home Guard and was assigned patrol duty in Madhapar.