Have 'irrefutable evidence' of MiG-21 shooting down Pakistan's F-16: IAF

NEW DELHI: The IAF on Monday said it has “irrefutable evidence” that not only did Pakistan deploy F-16s in the intended strike on Indian military installations across the Line of Control on February 27, which was thwarted by its fighters, but also that one of the US-origin jets was shot down by the MiG-21, being flown by Wing Commander Abhinandan Varthaman.

TOI last week had reported that + the IAF had marshalled evidence in the shape of “electronic signatures” captured by an Indian Phalcon AWACs aircraft and ground radar stations, which show the blip of a F-16 suddenly vanishing from the screens, to intercepted radio transmissions among Pak Army units and “physical sightings” of two parachutes coming down in the Sabz Kot and Tandar areas around 8-10 km apart in PoK.

“IAF has more credible information and evidence that is clearly indicative of the fact that PAF lost one F-16 in the air action on February 27. However, due to security and confidentiality concerns, we are restricting the information being shared in the public domain,” said assistant chief of air staff (operations) Air Vice Marshal R G K Kapoor, who displayed a few radar images at a press conference here.

The government and IAF have faced criticism from some international journals and defence analysts over its statements of successfully bombing the main Jaish-e-Mohammed facility at Balakot in Pakistan’s Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province in the pre-dawn air strikes on February 26 as well as the downing of a F-16 in the aerial skirmish over the LoC a day later.

Apart from the ongoing court of inquiry to ascertain whether “friendly fire” shot down an IAF Mi-17 V5 helicopter at Budgam on February 27, killing seven persons around the same time Indian and Pakistani fighters were engaged in the dogfight in Nowshera sector some 100-km away, critics have argued the Spice-2000 bombs fired by IAF fighters on the JeM facility missed their targets, while all the F-16s in the PAF’s combat fleet were also accounted for.

But rubbishing these claims once again on Monday, Air Vice Marshal Kapoor said, “IAF achieved its objectives of successfully striking the terrorist camp at Balakot and thwarting the PAF attack against our military installations. The PAF was unable to achieve its military objectives.”


“There is no doubt that two aircraft went down in the February 27 aerial engagement. While one was a MiG-21 Bison of IAF, the other was a F-16 of PAF, conclusively identified by its electronic signature and radio transcripts,” he added.

As earlier reported by TOI, IAF has stressed that the “electronic signatures” correlated with “tracks” and “call signs” during the dogfight clearly showed there were at least four F-16s in the “engagement area” with Varthaman’s MiG-21 opposite the Janghar area.

The track of one F-16 vanished from the radar screens 8-10 seconds later, and later its call sign too was missing while the rest of the Pakistani jets were returning to their bases.

Moreover, intercepted radio transmissions among Pak Army units, including 7 Northern Light Infantry and 658 Mujahid Battalion, show them talking about the two “parinda (aircraft)” being destroyed in the air, with two “parinde wale (pilots)” being captured on the ground.

Both PM Imran Khan and Pak Army spokesperson Major General Asif Ghafoor had also initially stated that two pilots had parachuted down, one being Varthaman and the other who was injured and admitted in a military hospital.