India has decided to counter Pakistan’s “malicious propaganda” against Delhi’s claim of downing its F-16 aircraft post the Balakot strike in 2019. In a bid to expose Pakistan’s lies and misinformation campaign, India will share more “solid proof” in its possession with the global community including the United States to substantiate the claim that Pakistan’s F-16 was downed by the Indian Air Force (IAF) post the Balakot strike, which was launched to avenge the Pulwama attack.
Sources told The Daily Guardian that the Indian high commission in Islamabad has already registered Delhi’s protests against Islamabad’s statement in which it termed as baseless the Indian stand that a Pakistani F-16 aircraft was shot down by an Indian pilot during an aerial combat in February 2019. Sources say that Indian high commission in Islamabad registered with Pakistani diplomats Delhi’s strong objection to such “misleading utterances and malicious propaganda based on lies and misinformation”.
India also reminded Pakistan of the evidence shared with it at that time which clearly proved how the Pakistan F-16 jet had been shot down. Sources told The Daily Guardian that senior officials of Pakistan’s foreign ministry will soon be given documents nailing Islamabad’s lies on the entire strike operation. The same documents have been shared with the US’ Pentagon as well, and Washington will be given these inputs once again, sources said.
Pakistan’s officials will be reminded that while sharing photographs of India’s crashed MiG-21 Bison fighter aircraft to support its claim, the Pakistani military’s publicity wing ISPR had released an image of the debris from its own F-16 fighter jet, an aircraft Islamabad maintained it never flew or accepted was hit by the IAF. This was an admission of what Pakistan has been denying in terms of downing of its F-16 aircraft.
“India will also bring it to the notice of the US that its defence department Pentagon’s position at that point of time was in line with Delhi which reaffirmed its account of the downing of the Pakistan F-16 on the basis of electronic signature as evidence. The US government was at that time on record saying it was not aware of any investigation that was conducted to ascertain if Pakistan lost an F-16 in a fight with Indian fighter jets on 27 February 2019. This will be shared with the Biden administration to counter Pakistan’s claim,” said a diplomat. This contradicts Pakistan’s claim that “some US defence officials found none of the F-16 jets was missing”. Pakistan’s foreign ministry in its statement on Tuesday again used this piece of “wrong information” for spreading its propaganda after Wing Commander Abhinandan Varthaman (now Group Captain) was conferred with Vir Chakra for shooting down the Pakistani F-16 jet.
“International experts and US officials have already confirmed that no Pakistani F-16 was shot down on the day, after taking stock of Pakistani F-16 aircraft. India’s insistence on propagating a lie that has been thoroughly exposed is ludicrous and nonsensical. Granting military honours for imaginary feats of gallantry is contrary to every norm of military conduct. By giving such award, also as an afterthought, India has only made a mockery of itself,” the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Pakistan said in a statement of 23 November.
“When the US government has denied having confirmed anything like this, why is Pakistan referring to the same again and again? By doing it, what the Imran Khan government has proved is that it is interested only in spreading lies and propaganda about what was a show of exceptional valour by the Indian officer,” says a diplomat. No physical count was done by anyone in the US, he added. “Pakistan could not name the officials, who it claims to have carried out the counting exercise. Where is the truth in it,” the officer said.
“The documents to expose Pakistan on this will be shared with the global community, and efforts will be made to get the US to send a message to Islamabad on this matter,” an MEA official told this newspaper. India’s claim was that the 1960s vintage aircraft had chased the F-16s out of Indian air space and managed to shoot down one F-16. India had also presented evidence claiming Pakistani F-16 jets violated Indian airspace and attempted to target Indian military installations on 27 February 2019. India had also presented pieces of an F16 air-to-air missile that were also displayed at that time. This proof is enough to nail Pakistan’s lie that they did not use an F-16 to target India. The same proof will be shared with the global community again. Moreover, radio signatures and communication which showed that one of the two ejections sighted on 27 February was a Lockheed Martin F-16 aircraft of the Pakistan Air Force.