Colonel Sofiya Qureshi, who briefed the media on Wednesday alongside Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri and Wing Commander Vyomika Singh on India’s ‘Operation Sindoor’, is a multi-generation officer in the Army who imbibed the spirit of serving the nation from an early age.
During the briefing, the two women officers — Colonel Sofiya and Wing Commander Vyomika — flanked the foreign secretary on the dais, who delivered the opening statement from the government, hours after the Indian armed forces carried out missile strikes on nine terror targets in Pakistan and PoK, including the Jaish-e-Mohammad stronghold of Bahawalpur and Lashkar-e-Taiba’s (LeT) base Muridke.
Qureshi and Singh shared the names and details of the sites targeted from 1 am to 1.30 am on the intervening night of May 6-7. Qureshi, an officer from the Corps of Signals, spoke in Hindi while IAF helicopter pilot
Singh shared the details in English, complementing each other.
In a panel discussion hosted in 2017, Qureshi shared about her journey into the armed forces and what inspired her to don the olive-green uniform.
“Being a ‘Fauji’ kid, I was exposed to the army environment. My mother wanted either of us two sisters to join the Army. I applied for it and got it. My grandfather was also in the army, and he used to say, ‘It is our responsibility, as every citizen, to be alert and stand up for our country and defend the nation. “It is a dignified and honourable job,” she had recalled.
She also said when she “joined the academy, the Kargil war was going on”.
The officer also led an army training contingent at a multinational field training exercise in 2016. “1st woman officer to lead an Army training contingent at Force18 — #ASEAN Plus multinational field training exercise in 2016. She was the only Woman Officers Contingent Commander among all #ASEAN Plus contingents. #WomensDay #IWD2020 #EachforEqual #SheInspiresUs,” the Ministry of Defence had said in a Women’s Day post on X, sharing a photograph of Qureshi.
Wing Commander Vyomika Singh is an accomplished helicopter pilot who has flown a variety of aircraft and taken part in rescue operations in extreme conditions to evacuate civilians.
Vyomika, who is married to an Indian Air Force (IAF) pilot, had shared how her name, perhaps, carried her destiny to become a pilot during a panel discussion hosted by a private channel in 2023.
“I was in Class 6 when the Eureka moment happened — I realised that I wanted to be a pilot and own the sky. We were having a discussion in class on the meaning of names. Somebody shouted, ‘You are Vyomika, which means you own the sky’. Since that day, I have wanted to be a pilot. This was in the early 1990s,” Vyomika recalled during the panel discussion. During the interaction that hailed the spirit of ‘Nari Shakti’, she also shared her journey into the IAF and how she earned her wings.
From dreaming of being a pilot to logging over 2,500 flying hours, Vyomika has operated several helicopters across some of the country’s most challenging terrains, from the high-altitude sectors in Jammu and Kashmir to the remote areas in the Northeast. In 2020, she led a rescue operation in Arunachal Pradesh, flying in extreme conditions to evacuate civilians.
“It has been an excellent experience (in the IAF), and I love it,” the IAF officer told the private channel, as she shared what it meant to fly a helicopter in different weather conditions and navigate it.