Bhilwara (Rajasthan): At a time when Wing Commander Abhinandan Varthaman’s swashbuckling gunslinger moustache has become the new fad among men, air strike themed sarees have become a popular trend among women here. In Rajasthan’s Bhilwara, which is known as the textile city of India, women are supporting the Indian Army following the recent air strikes carried out on terror launch pads in Pakistan’s Balakot by popularising the ‘air strike saree’.
The sarees feature the face of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, along with a group of armed Indian Army personnel, while another portion of the saree comprises prints of fighter jets. Speaking about the trend, Kalpesh Chowdhury, one of the retailers in Bhilwara, told ANI: “I had ordered these sarees from Surat, Gujarat. Following the air strike, the sale of these sarees featuring Modi and Army has been unimaginable. A number of women are bringing other women along with them to buy the sarees. They believe that while they can’t go to the border and fight alongside the Army, they want to boost the Indian Army’s morale by wearing these sarees that have been dedicated to them.”
40 CRPF personnel were killed in an attack carried out by Pakistan-based terror outfit Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) in South Kashmir’s Pulwama on February 14. Less than two weeks after the attack, India carried out air strike at a JeM training camp in Balakot in Pakistan’s Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, eliminating a “large number” of terrorists, Foreign Secretary Vijay Gokhale said on February 26. A day after the air strike, Pakistani F-16 fighter jets transgressed into the Indian airspace, one of which was shot down by a MiG 21 Bison piloted by Varthaman.
