November 05, 2024 09:23 (IST)
Follow us:
facebook-white sharing button
twitter-white sharing button
instagram-white sharing button
youtube-white sharing button
Pakistan's Lahore has become world's most polluted city with an AQI of 1900 on Sunday | Indian Army 'successfully completes' patrolling to a key point in Ladakh's Depsang region | US presidential election: Donald Trump ahead of Kamala Harris in swing states, poll survey predicts | 'I strongly condemn Hindu temple attack, intimidation of our diplomats': PM Modi amid Canada row | 'I strongly condemn Hindu temple attack, intimidation of our diplomats': PM Modi amid Canada row
IAF says it has proof of Pak F-16 shot down, refutes US journal report

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

| @indiablooms | 05 Apr 2019, 02:17 pm

New Delhi, Apr 5 (IBNS): Indian Air Force on Friday said it had proof of shooting down a Pakistani F-16 aircraft in February, refuting claims made otherwise in a 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.

 

 

Support Our Journalism

We cannot do without you.. your contribution supports unbiased journalism

IBNS is not driven by any ism- not wokeism, not racism, not skewed secularism, not hyper right-wing or left liberal ideals, nor by any hardline religious beliefs or hyper nationalism. We want to serve you good old objective news, as they are. We do not judge or preach. We let people decide for themselves. We only try to present factual and well-sourced news.

Support objective journalism for a small contribution.