A fresh controversy has erupted over claims by the Indian Air Force that Wing Commander Abhinandan Varthaman, flying a MIG-21, had downed F-16 on February 27 at least seven to eight kms inside Pakistan Occupied Kashmir (POK) in Sabzkot area.
While the US media has claimed that no Pakistan Air Force’s F-16 jet was shot down during the aerial combat, the IAF has stuck to its stand.
A report published in US publication Foreign Policy published on Thursday said, “Two senior US defense officials with direct knowledge of the situation told Foreign Policy that US personnel recently counted Islamabad’s F-16s and found none missing.”
However, the names of the officials were not disclosed in the report. Rejecting the report, the IAF asserted that it had shot down an F-16 aircraft of the Pakistan Air Force on February 27 during aerial combat.
“During the aerial engagement, one MiG 21 Bison of the IAF shot down an F-16 in Nowshera sector,” the IAF said in a statement.
IAF sources also said here that radio communication of Pakistan Air Force intercepted by the IAF confirmed that one of the F-16s that attacked India on February 27 in retaliation against IAF air strikes in Balakot a day earlier did not return to its base in Pakistan.
The statement said after the IAF attack on the terrorist camp in Balakot on February 26, Pakistan Air Force (PAF) attempted a riposte on February 27, 2019. A large force of PAF F-16s, JF-17s and Mirage III/V aircraft were picked up by IAF radars. They were intercepted by IAF Su-30MKI, Mirage-2000 and Mig-21 Bison fighters guided by ground radars and AWACS.
All attempts of PAF to attack any targets were thwarted by the IAF. Indian forces 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 the other a PAF aircraft. Electronic signatures gathered by us indicate that PAF aircraft was an F-16.
The rebuttal came in response to the Foreign Policy magazine report that the US count of the F-16s with Pakistan has found that none of them are missing, contradicting India’s claim that one of its fighter jets shot down F-16.
The report also said Pakistan invited the United States to physically count its F-16 planes after the incident as part of an end-user agreement signed when the foreign military sale was finalised.
“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.”
It also said count has been completed, and “all aircraft were present and accounted for”, an unnamed official is quoted as saying.
“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 US 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,” Foreign Policy said. US over the last one decade has sold over 70 F-16 to Pakistan.
The Government had earlier said in the aerial combat Varthaman had engaged one of the Pakistani fighter jets that tried to attack military targets in Rajouri sector after intruding into Indian air space. During the aerial duel, Varthaman in his MIG-21 entered POK and was shot down by Pakistan air defence. He bailed out safely and was captured by Pakistan and returned to India two days later.
Moreover, in an effort to back up its assertion about shooting down the F-16, the IAF on February 28 had displayed pieces of the AMRAAM missile, fired by a Pakistani F-16, as evidence.
Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman in an interview to a private television channel had said, ‘’We are definitely saying that an F-16 was knocked out by us and initially, the Pakistan Prime Minister claimed that two pilots were with them. One of the pilots was ours and returned as per the norms. Who is the other pilot?’’
