WASHINGTON, April 05 (INP): India’s lie was once again exposed when Foreign Policy reported that New Delhi misled the international community by claiming that a Pakistani F-16 was shot down.

India’s claim of shooting down a Pakistani F-16 fighter jet in an aerial battle between the two nuclear powers in February appears to be wrong, the report said. 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. [timed-content-server show="04/06/2019 01:00 Asia/Karachi"]The findings directly contradict the account of Indian Air Force officials, who said that Wing Commander Abhinandan Varthaman managed to shoot down a Pakistani F-16 before his own plane was downed by a Pakistani missile. The count, conducted by U.S. authorities on the ground in Pakistan, 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 dogfight between the two nations occurred on February 27. During the aerial battle, Indian pilot Abhinandan Varthaman took a missile hit and ejected safely into Pakistani territory. He was captured by the Pakistani army and released days later in an effort to de-escalate the crisis. One of the senior U.S. defense officials with direct knowledge of the count said that Pakistan invited the United States to physically count its F-16 planes after the incident as part of an end-user agreement signed when the foreign military sale was finalized. Generally in such agreements, the United States requires the receiving country to allow U.S. officials to inspect the equipment regularly to ensure it is accounted for and protected. Some of the aircraft were not immediately available for inspection due to the conflict, so it took U.S. personnel several weeks to account for all of the jets, the official said. But now the count has been completed, and “all aircraft were present and accounted for,” the official said. INP/LK[/timed-content-server]