Netflix series Operation Safed Sagar chronicles the events of the Kargil War 1999, highlighting the sacrifices of the Indian Air Force. The show closely follows the story of Squadron Leader Ajay Ahuja (played by Siddharth), who was captured by the Pakistani forces during the war. Ajay while he was trying to rescue Flight Lieutenant K Nachiketa. Nachiketa had to eject from his MiG-27 after an engine failure. In an earlier interview, ACM BS Dhanoa (Retd) (played by Jimmy Shergill) shared the events that led to Ajay’s capture, and said that Ajay did “everything right” after a surface-to-air missile hit his MiG-21.
In a chat with The Lallantop recorded in January 2026, Dhanoa said that Ajay had spotted Nachiketa’s crash site and was trying to rescue him. But in an attempt to keep an eye on the crash site, his aircraft drifted down. “Because he had drifted down, he came within the effective engagement envelope of the surface-to-air missile, so he was hit,” he said.
Dhanoa insisted that after Ahuja’s plane was hit, he did “everything right, whatever we had discussed in the squad.” He said that the plan was not to eject from the aircraft at such high altitude as it could have caused fatal injuries, and Ajay followed those instructions. “Srinagar is at around 5,500 ft, but the target was at around 14,000-15,000 ft. We didn’t even have the appropriate flying clothing for such an extreme cold climate. We were just wearing those regular winter thermals that were made in Ludhiana. So if you eject at that altitude and land from 15,000 ft, your body is not acclimatised; there is no oxygen, plus it’s so cold that one could die of that cold. We had decided that we would not eject,” he said.
Dhanoa said that the warhead of a surface-to-air missile is “not that big” and they knew that in case it hit the plane, it could cause engine failure but the aircraft itself won’t be blown to pieces. “We had decided that we would stay with the aircraft and we would glide with it, and glide until you reach a river valley. So he glided. After gliding, he hit the Indus river,” he shared. After reaching the river, Ajay had two choices. “He could have either turned 120 degrees and turned towards India, or turned 60 degrees the other way and turned towards the valley.”
“Now MiG-21 has a high rate of descent when it does not have an engine, so in that, he turned towards Pakistan occupied Kashmir. Thereafter, when he stabilised, he was on the river. In our GPS system, you had to turn the page, he turned the page and he called out his co-ordinates and announced that he was ejecting,” he said and added that the Pakistani photograph of the aircraft showed that the aircraft was on the river. “He did everything right. Unfortunately, after he ejected, he got surrounded by Northern Light Infantry Regiment (NLI).
Dhanoa said that the post on the Indian side, called Devil’s Eye, saw Ahuja land. “They saw that he had landed safely and he was surrounded. After he was surrounded, he was killed in cold blood,” he said. Dhanoa insisted that Ajay did everything correctly and they “shouldn’t have lost him.”
He said that naysayers make many claims and offer opinions, but those are all in hindsight. “In hindsight, you can say that no matter what happens, he should have turned towards India. But all of that you can learn only in hindsight,” he said.
Dhanoa also spoke about Ajay Ahuja’s postmortem, which was conducted in Srinagar and elaborated on his bullet wounds. “He was shot with two bullets. One bullet was shot from one side of the neck, and had an exit wound on the other side. One shot was through his nipple and came out at the bottom,” he said.
He said that during a course in Hawaii in the year 2000, he met a Pakistani officer named Sabir Malik, and questioned him about Ajay Ahuja’s death. “I told him that India and Pakistan are both signatories to the Geneva Convention. I told him that civilised nations don’t do such things. He claimed that Ajay shot himself. I said I could understand the neck wound that maybe he shot himself when he saw he was going to get captured, but what is the explanation for the second bullet wound? A pilot never dies of small arms injury. Ahuja dies of a small arms injury, so that would happen only after he got captured,” he said.
In the Netflix series, it is shown that Ajay was brutally tortured by the Pakistani forces before he was killed.
DISCLAIMER: This content includes reflective storytelling and historical references to war-related injuries and loss of life, intended solely for informational purposes and not as professional or medical advice.
