New Delhi, Nov. 23: Three Pakistani Sabre jets which intruded into Indian territory near Boyra, 48 kilometres north-east of Calcutta, were shot down in an aerial engagement with four Gnats of the Indian Air Force yesterday afternoon. The Minister of State for Defence Production Mr. V.C. Shukla, made this announcement in Parliament to-day amidst thunderous applause an hour after President Yahya Khan had declared a state of emergency in Pakistan. The near-war situation now prevailing in the sub-continent was further aggravated to-day by the proclamation of emergency in Pakistan following the intensification of the fighting in East Bengal and the shooting down of three of the four intruding Pakistani Sabre jets. The hard-pressed military regime in Pakistan has obviously resorted to this stratagem of declaring an emergency to bring the Security Council into the picture and step up the international pressures on India to agree to some sort of U.N. presence on the borders in the name of preventing a wider war in the sub-continent. In a brief statement he made on behalf of the Defence Minister who is away on tour, Mr. Shukla said in Parliament that the four Pakistani Sabre jets which penetrated to a depth of five kilometres into Indian air space were engaged by four I.A.F. Gnats which were sent up to intercept them.
