The pilot of the Gnat going down in flames, Flying Officer Nirmaljit Singh Sekhon, was posthumously given the Param Vir Chakra, India"s highest gallantry award. Nirmaljit had taken off behind his group from Srinagar (in the background) to intercept the approaching air strike of four F-86s with two escorts. Before being shot down with a gun burst by Flight Lieutenant Salim Beg Mirza (leader of the escort F-86 pair), Nirmaljit was claimed by the IAF to have scored hits on two of the six F-86s but in fact all of them had returned to Peshawar without a scratch. The painting shows Salim and his wingman in the foreground. Two of the four strike F-86s can be seen at a distance, attacking their targets at the Srinagar air base, through the bursting ack ack shells.
