TEHRAN, Mar31-India has purportedly shared critical evidence with the United States that indicates Pakistan's Air Force used American-made fighter jets to attack Indian military positions during the recent flare-up between the two nuclear neighbors over the disputed region of Kashmir, a move that runs against existing military agreements between Washington and Islamabad.
TEHRAN, Young Journalists Club (YJC) -Indian officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, told local media on Saturday that the Pakistan Air Force (PAF) had indeed used F-16 fighters in its February 27 strikes in Jammu and Kashmir’s Nowshera sector as part of attempts to retaliate an Indian Air Force (IAF) strike on a militant training camp in Pakistan’s Balakot the previous day.
The Indian officials said the evidence of their claim, including call signs associated with PAF F-16 jets and specific details of the AIM-120 Advanced Medium Range Air To Air Missile (AMRAAM) used by the PAF jets, had been shared with the US through intelligence channels.
The details in missile debris from the February 27 strikes correspond to the consignment lot sold by the US to Pakistan, the officials added.
Indian and Pakistani fighter jets staged tit-for-tat cross-border raids last month as they wrangled over a bomb attack in the Indian-controlled Kashmir that New Delhi said was conducted by the Pakistani Jaish-e-Mohammed militant group and left at least 40 Indian paramilitary forces dead.
Pakistan said it had shot down two Indian MiG-21 Bison fighter jets and captured one of their pilots during the dogfight. Islamabad later handed over the pilot, identified in reports as Wing Commander Abhinandan Varthaman, to India.
India also said that it had downed a Pakistani F-16, a claim dismissed by Islamabad.
The unnamed Indian government officials doubled down on Delhi's claim, saying inspections of a recovered engine cowling found in Kashmir showed that it had nothing to do with Varthaman’s MiG-21 Bison and most certainly belonged to a PAF F-16 Fighting Falcon.
Photographs of the wreckage show a part without rivets while the MiG-21 engine cowling has rivets at multiple places, they said.
Major General Asif Ghafoor, chief spokesperson of the Pakistan Armed Forces, who had initially denied the use of F-16s in the Nowshera fight on February 27, contradicted his own remarks in a March 24 interview with Sputnik in Islamabad, where he implied that the F-16 had been scrambled at the time and that his country was discussing the matter with Washington.
“As regards 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 — it remains between Pakistan and the US to see how the MoUs (memorandums of understanding) regarding the use of F-16 have been adhered to or otherwise,” General Ghafoor was quoted as saying.
The alleged move by the Pakistani Air Force could amount to a violation of US agreements since Washington sold F-16 fighters to Islamabad on condition that they will not be used in aggression against any other country but only in the war against terrorist outfits.
Source:presstv
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