Did India shoot down a Pakistani F16?

Pakistani F-16

India has offered no evidence; an American media report suggests Pakistan hasn’t lost any F16  

The Indian version of the India-Pakistan dogfight was this: On February 26, Indian jets carried out precision strikes at a Jaish-e-Mohammed training facility in Pakistan’s Balakot, killing several terrorists and their trainers. The next day Pakistani war planes crossed the border to carry out airstrikes on the Indian side of Kashmir, but Indian air force scrambled jets to push them back. In the air fight that ensued, the jet being flown by Wing Commander Abhinandan Varthaman was hit by a Pakistani strike. But Commander Varthaman shot down one Pakistani F-16 jet before his plane went down. He ejected from the jet and landed in the Pakistani territory. He was captured by the Pakistani army, but was released the next day to de-escalate tensions. In fact, the release of Commander Varthaman pulled India and Pakistan from the brink of a war.

There were two problems with this narrative. One, there was no certainty on whether Indian strike did hit the target—the Jaish training camp. While the Foreign Secretary Vijay Gokhale initially said several terrorists were killed, media reported that up to 300 terrorists were killed in the strike. But later neither the government nor the Air Force clarified on the numbers. The Air Force said the target was hit and it couldn’t ascertain the number of terrorists who were killed. India hasn’t released any evidence so far on whether the target was hit. Prime Minister Narendra Modi had even attacked those who ask for saboot (evidence). On the other side, several international reports, including those by Reuters and Al Jazeera, claimed that India missed its target.

Two, there’s no evidence to the claim that India shot down a Pakistani F-16. Pakistan had released the debris of the Indian plane that was shot down, but no debris of the F-16 was found. Not even the Pakistani media has reported anything to corroborate the Indian claim. The Pakistanis had denied the Indian claim. The initial international media reports also overlooked the Indian claim that F-16 was downed. A New York Times report dated March 3, which was titled After India Loses Dogfight to Pakistan, Questions Arise About Its ‘Vintage’ Military, didn’t have any reference to the F-16 angle. An article written on The Hill by Shamila N Chaudhary, a member of the Barack Obama administration, which depicted the events on February 26 and 27 doesn’t even acknowledge the Indian claim. On the contrary, an April 4 report in Foreign Policy magazine, written by Lara Seligman, claimed that India’s claim was wrong. “Two senior U.S. defense officials with direct knowledge of the situation told Foreign Policy that U.S. personnel recently counted Islamabad’s F-16s and found none missing,” she wrote in the report.

So the bottomline is that there’s no evidence that India’s airstrikes had hit the target. There’s no evidence that India killed terrorists in Balakot. There’s no evidence that India downed a Pakistani jet. The American media quoting administration officials say India did not. On the other side, there’s evidence that Pakistan downed at least one of India’s jets, captured its pilot and paraded him before cameras and released the video footage online. Prime Minister Modi and his supporters continue to claim that he taught Pakistan a lesson. But the available facts suggest that the lesson he taught might be totally different from what his supporters claim to be.

One thought on “Did India shoot down a Pakistani F16?

  1. How do you explain the AMRAAM parts that were found? or the fact that The Pentagon hasn’t responded to the F-16 case officially?

    Reply

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