RAWALPINDI – Spokesman for the Pakistani Army Major General Asif Ghafoor onSunday rejected India’s claims that Pakistan used US-made F-16s to downIndian aircraft in late February, stating that PAC JF-17 Thunder combataircraft developed jointly with China were used instead.
Earlier in March, Indian media reported that the United States was lookinginto a possible violation of the terms of use of F-16 it supplied toPakistan, as New Delhi claimed that the aircraft was used in the dogfightagainst Indian planes in late February.
“The aircraft which engaged those targets and fought them were JF-17. Asregard to how to use F-16, in what context [they] were used or not –because at that point of time our entire Air Force was airborne – now itremains between Pakistan and the US to see how the MoUs regarding the useof F-16 have been adhered to or otherwise,” Ghafoor told Russia’s Sputniklink.
He noted that Islamabad was discussing the use of its JF-17 with the UnitedStates citing “friendly relations” with Washington, stressing, however,that the country would use whatever it deemed necessary if it came to“legitimate self-defense.”
The official also shared Pakistan’s account of the events that preceded thedogfight on February 28. According to Ghafoor, the Indian jets violated thePakistani airspace on February 26, dropping payloads without inflicting anycasualties or damage to infrastructure.
Pakistan then, according to his words, decided to retaliate, but chose notto threaten civilian lives.
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“Next day, our Air Force, while staying within our own airspace, took fourtargets in India-occupied Kashmir … Being a responsible country, we couldhave caused damage even to the military installations or human life … Butwe had to show our will, capability and resolve. So what we did – we firstchose the targets, and when the targets were locked by the aircraft, weshifted the point of impact to a safety distance where there was noinfrastructure or human life, meaning thereby that we wanted to tellIndians that we had the capability to hit that military target, but in theentrust of the peace of the region we are only showing you our capability,”Ghafoor said.
He added that Pakistan had the footage of this operation.
Tensions between India and Pakistan escalated last month, after thePakistani military shot down two Indian warplanes in the disputed region ofKashmir, responding to an earlier airstrike by Indian jets against what NewDelhi said was a camp of Jaish-e-Mohammad group, considered terrorists byIndia and located on the Pakistani soil across the so-called Line ofControl, separating India- and Pakistan- controlled areas of Kashmir.
The Indian airstrike came after a deadly attack by Jaish-e-Mohammad on theIndian paramilitary police force in Kashmir in mid-February. While Indiahas accused Pakistan of supporting the militants and having a “direct hand”in the incident, Pakistan, in turn, has rejected the allegations.
