IAF says it has proof of Pak F-16 shot down, refutes US journal report

A report in the US news publication Foreign Policy had said on Thursday: "Two senior US defense officials with direct knowledge of the situation told Foreign Policy that U.S. personnel recently counted Islamabad's F-16s and found none missing."

Reacting to it, the Indian Air Force today said: "The Indian Forces have confirmed sighting ejections at two different places on that day. The two sightings were at places separated by at least 8-10 km. One was an IAF MiG 21 Bison and other a PAF aircraft. Electronic signatures gathered by us indicate that the PAF aircraft was a F-16."

IAF Wing Commander Abhinandan Varthaman was the pilot ejecting from the IAF MiG 21 Bison. He had been captured and later released by Pakistan.

On February 28, the IAF had furnished to the media pieces of the AMRAAM missile fired by a Pakistani F-16. However, the missile did not prove whether the fighter aircraft was actually shot down.

The Foreign Policy report said Pakistan had invited US officials to physically count its F-16s after the incident.

"A US count of Pakistan's F-16 fleet has found that all the jets are present and accounted for, a direct contradiction to India's claim that it shot down one of the fighter jets during a February clash," the report said.

"It is possible that in the heat of combat, Varthaman, flying a vintage MiG-21 Bison, got a lock on the Pakistani F-16, fired, and genuinely believed he scored a hit. But the count, conducted by U.S. authorities on the ground in Pakistan, sheds doubt on New Delhi's version of events, suggesting that Indian authorities may have misled the international community about what happened that day," says Foreign Policy.