New Delhi, Apr 5:
The Indian Air Force on Friday 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. The assertion came after the American magazine Foreign Policy reported on Thursday 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 a Pakistani F-16 during an aerial dogfight on February 27. The Indian Air Force had on February 28 displayed pieces of the AMRAAM + missile, fired by a Pakistani F-16, as evidence to “conclusively” prove that Pakistan deployed the US-manufactured fighter jets during an aerial raid targeting Indian military installations in Kashmir. Pakistan had categorically said that no F-16 fighter jets were used and denied that one of its planes had been downed by the IAF. According to the Foreign Policy magazine, 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,” Lara Seligman of the magazine reported on Thursday. The count of the F-16 fighter planes in Pakistan has been completed, and “all aircraft were present and accounted for,” an unnamed defence official was quoted as saying by the magazine.
