No 9 Squadron was able to restore the balance in its favour, however, as a result of continued enemy attacks almost every night on Sargodha. On the night of 21 September, an F-104 flown by Squadron Leader Jamal A Khan, formerly commanding the same squadron, and to which he was recalled from Staff College at the outbreak of war, intercepted a Canberra at about 33,000 ft and shot it down with a Sidewinder near Fazilka, inside Pakistani territory. Although the navigator failed to escape, the IAF pilot, Flight Lieutenant M M Lowe, ejected and was captured by Pak Army troops and was able to give some details of the unsuccessful end of his mission. It seems that a fuel shortage caused him to start the climb out for his return to base rather earlier than usual, which is how he came to encounter the F-104 before reaching the border with India. His Canberra was fitted with tail warning radar, but this had been switched off at low altitude because it then beeped almost continually from ground returns. When exiting, Lowe had forgotten to switch it on again for the climb, and was thus unaware of the F-104's presence. Jamal was positioned behind the Canberra by Sakesar, and soon picked up the target on his own radar. When the range dropped to just over a mile, he fired one Sidewinder, and watched it home all the way to impact on the starboard jet engine of the Canberra.

This was the last night raid to be undertaken by the IAF Canberra force, which achieved a grand total of one B-57 slightly damaged, one runway holed, and two small airfield buildings destroyed, plus some civilian casualties and destruction to show for its entire campaign. The precise losses incurred by the IAF to achieve these inferior results have never been revealed, although post-war Indian claims were that only one Canberra did not return, from nearly 200 sorties.