ISLAMABAD – In a worst blow to India, US defence officials reject Indianclaims of shooting down PAF F16, Foreign Policy Magazine has reported.
US Defense officials have rejected India’s claim that it shot down aPakistani F-16 fighter jet in an aerial dogfight between the two sides inFebruary.
Two senior US defense officials with direct knowledge of the situationtold ForeignPolicy magazinelinkthatUS personnel recently counted Pakistan’s F-16s and found none missing.
The findings directly contradict the account of Indian Air Force officials,who said that Wing Commander Abhinandan Varthaman managed to shoot down aPakistani F-16 before his own plane was downed by Pakistan Air Force, thepublication states.
The count, conducted by US authorities on the ground in Pakistan, castsdoubt on India’s version of events, suggesting that Indian authorities mayhave misled the international community about what happened that day, itadds.
According to Vipin Narang, an associate professor of political science atMIT, the details look worse and worse for India, just days before the startof the general elections there.
“As details come out, it looks worse and worse for the Indians,” ForeignPolicy quoted Narang as saying. “It looks increasingly like India failed toimpose significant costs on Pakistan, but lost a plane and a helicopter ofits own in the process.”
One of the senior US defense officials said that Pakistan invited theUnited States to physically count its F-16 planes after the incident aspart of an end-user agreement signed when the foreign military sale wasfinalised.
The count has been completed, and “all aircraft were present and accountedfor,” the official said.