MiG-23 gifted by IAF and installed on AMU campus listed for sale on OLX

AGRA: The Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-23BN fighter aircraft, which was gifted to Aligarh Muslim University (AMU) by the Indian Air Force (IAF) in 2009, has now been listed on OLX for a sale price of Rs 9.99 crore. A probe has been ordered by the university to find out the people behind the advertisement.
It is suspected that the advert has been posted by some AMU members along with a picture of the MiG-23BN. However, the university proctor, Prof Mohammad Wasim Ali, said that there is no role of any present or former student or university member in uploading this advert on OLX.
“We are probing the matter. The picture has been removed now. This is all fake. Someone has tried to defame the university,” said Prof Ali.
Notably, AMU engineering students study about MiG-23 aircraft’s parts, technology and design. Principal of Zakir Husain College of Engineering and technology, AMU, Prof MM Sufyan Beg, said that aeronautical engineering is part of mechanical engineering and the students study this in a lab course as part of their curriculum.
According to sources, AMU was the first university in the state and seventh in India, where ground attack fighter planes of Indian Air Force were installed. Besides, IAF had gifted airplanes to a number of schools in the national capital. Delhi’s Modern School has a Hawker Hunter (BA-241) installed on its campus.
Made by the erstwhile Soviet Union in the 1970s, MIG-23 was inducted in IAF on January 24, 1981. But with the latest technology coming in, this fighter plane was decommissioned after 28 years of glorious service on March 6, 2009.
The fighter aircraft was deployed in Siachen Glacier in Northern Ladakh, Kashmir valley and Kargil conflicts at various crucial times. The single-seater ground attack plane has an R-29-300 engine like its contemporary fighter variants.