Report debunks Indian claim of downing Pakistani jet

ANKARA

India's claim of shooting down a Pakistan F-16 fighter jet in a dogfight between the two nuclear armed neighbors in February is factually incorrect, a new report has said.

Quoting two anonymous U.S. defense officials with direct knowledge of the matter, Washington-based publication Foreign Policy said U.S. personnel counted the F-16s in Pakistan and found none missing.

The F-16 are manufactured by U.S. firm Lockheed Martin.

Contradictory claims had come in from Pakistan and India in the aftermath of air raids on Feb. 27.

Pakistan claimed to have shot down two Indian warplanes, while India said it had shot down a Pakistani F-16 jet.

The air raids came after India blamed a Pakistan-based militant outfit of orchestrating a bombing in Indian administered-Kashmir in mid-February killing 40 Indian troops. Islamabad has so far denied the charge.

The report went on to say that the fresh details “sheds doubt on New Delhi’s version of events, suggesting that Indian authorities may have misled the international community about what happened that day”.

The news comes as India is gearing for elections this month.

Pakistani officials have welcomed the revelations of the report.

"Time for India to speak truth about false claims & actual losses on their side including the second aircraft shot down by Pakistan," Pakistan Army spokesman Maj. Gen. Asif Ghafoor said in a tweet.

However, Indian Air Force (IAF) rejected the report in a statement, saying it has proof that a Pakistani F-16 fighter jet was shot down.

"The Indian Forces have confirmed sighting ejections at two different places on that day. The two sightings were at places separated by at least 8-10 km. One was an IAF MiG 21 Bison and other a PAF aircraft. Electronic signatures gathered by us indicate that the PAF aircraft was a F-16," said the statement quoted by Indian broadcaster NDTV.