Heroes who shot down Indian fighter jets for the first time revealed by the government of Pakistan
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AFP
Published: March 6, 2019
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Squadron Leader Hassan Siddiqui (L) and Wing Commander Nauman Ali Khan (R). PHOTOS: SOCIAL MEDIA
ISLAMABAD: The government on Wednesday for the first time named the pilots who shot down two Indian warplanes last week, in a rare aerial engagement which had ignited fears of an all-out conflict with its nuclear rival.
The dogfight over the disputed Himalayan territory of Kashmir on February 27 ended with two Indian Air Force fighter jets downed and a pilot captured by the Pakistani security forces.
He was returned to India on Friday, crossing the Wagah border on foot.
The clash also fuelled fears that soaring tensions between the South Asian countries could erupt into their fourth war, with world powers rushing to urge restraint.
“Two Indian planes were shot down by Pakistan Air Force on February 27,” Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi told parliament Wednesday.
He named them as Squadron Leader Hassan Siddiqui and Wing Commander Nauman Ali Khan, saying he wanted to “pay tribute” to them both.
Siddiqui had been widely named in unverified comments on social media.
Indian claims of Balakot airstrike debunked by international media
Tensions escalated dramatically between Pakistan and India on February 14 when a young man – a native of Indian occupied Kashmir (IoK) – rammed an explosives-laden car into an Indian military convoy, killing at least 44 soldiers.
India was quick to blame Pakistan for the suicide bombing. PM Imran offered every possible help in the investigation, but India turned down the offer and whipped up war hysteria.
On February 26, the Indian Air Force violated Pakistani airspace. The country’s top civil and military leadership declared the violation of airspace by Indian fighter jets “uncalled for aggression” and decided that the country would respond at a “time and place of its choosing”.
On February 27, Pakistan announced it had shot down two Indian fighter jets that attempted to violate its airspace and captured an Indian pilot.
On February 28, the Foreign Office said it received a dossier on the Pulwama attack from the Indian government. It added that the government was deliberating whether to treat Abhinandan as a prisoner of war (POW) or apply any international convention.
In the evening, PM Imran addressed a joint session of the parliament and announced that Pakistan would release the captured pilot as a goodwill gesture to de-escalate tensions.
On March 1, Pakistan ‘as a goodwill gesture’ handed over to Indian authorities the captured IAF Wing Commander Abhinandan Varthaman.
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Foreign journalist doubts India's narrative on F-16 use
By
News Desk
Published: March 6, 2019
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PHOTO: PPI
Amidst an ongoing standoff between Pakistan and India, a New York Times journalist, Maria Abi-Habib, has pointed out that Islamabad may not have violated its F-16 sales agreement with Washington contrary to New Delhi’s claim even if the US fighter jets were involved in the downing of two Indian Air Force jets.
Tensions between the South Asian neighbours escalated following a suicide car bombing on February 14 that killed at least 40 Indian paramilitary police in Indian-occupied Kashmir.
New Delhi accused Islamabad of harbouring the Jaish-e Mohammad group behind the attack, which Islamabad denied, and Prime Minister Narendra Modi promised a strong response.
Pakistan said the Indian planes missed whatever they were aiming at, and that nobody died in the attack outside Balakot in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P).
On March 2, Pakistan handed back a captured Indian pilot Abhinandan whose MiG-21 jet was shot down by a Pakistan Air Force (PAF) during a clash over Kashmir on February 27 as two weeks of growing tensions between the two countries erupted into open hostilities.
Confirming the incident, New Delhi had complained the aircraft used by the PAF to ingress into Indian-occupied Kashmir (IoK) had included an F-16 which it claimed the Indian Air Force (IAF) had shot down. The PAF, however, had denied that F-16 jets were used India.
Indian insisted that Pakistan’s use of F-16 against India meant that Islamabad stood in violation of a sales agreement with the US, which allegedly restricts the fighter jets to be used for anti-terrorism sorties only.
But NYT’s South Asia correspondent in her tweets on Wednesday explained how Pakistan may not have committed any such violation even if it did use F-16s to shoot down Indian jets.
“The US says if Pakistan used an F-16 to shoot down an Indian MiG, it may not have violated sale agreement. India says deal limits Pakistan to use jets only for counter-terror operations,” Maria tweeted.
“The US officials are pushing back hard on India’s interpretation of their F-16 sale agreement with Pakistan. They say if India entered Pakistan airspace for a second day, and Pakistan used the jet defensively, the contract wasn’t violated.”
According to the journalist, “American officials at this moment say they are assessing if an F16 was used and in what manner.”
She said the US wants to strengthen its alliance with New Delhi is so important for Washington that it even offered to produce F-16 jets in India “as a sweetener”.
