India should ignore reset in US-Pakistan ties
Recent weeklong visits by Pakistan’s foreign minister, Bilawal Bhutto and army chief, General Bajwa, to Washington, signal a resetting of Pakistan ties, believed by some to be a message to India.
Recent weeklong visits by Pakistan’s foreign minister, Bilawal Bhutto and army chief, General Bajwa, to Washington, signal a resetting of Pakistan ties, believed by some to be a message to India.
Once the SpiceJet pilots identified themselves as a commercial airliner, the PAF fighters allowed it to continue its flight and escorted it till the flight entered Afghan airspace.
The Indian Air Force Chief is also a MiG-21 pilot and had flown the planes during the 1999 Kargil war while commanding the 17 Squadron, during the war.
India, he said, had conveyed its grave concern to the US authorities over the restoration of the F-16 support programme estimated to cost $125 million, within days of Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan’s visit to Washington.
After the IAF airstrikes on Balakot, Pakistan had used F-16 fighter jets to target military posts at Jhangar and Nowshera in Jammu and Kashmir.
According to the Foreign Policy magazine, Pakistan invited the US to count its F-16 planes after the incident as part of an end-user agreement signed when the sale was finalised.
Pakistan had so far maintained that it had used JF-17 Thunder combat aircraft jointly developed with China during the dogfight with Indian warplanes on February 27.
India’s contention is that Pakistan had used AMRAAM missile during the dogfight which could only be loaded on an F-16 aircraft.
During the exercise, IAF jets including frontline aircraft, flew at supersonic speeds in the border districts including Amritsar.
The IAF sources said that a medical review board in the near future will assess the medical fitness of Abhinandan and decide on when he can resume his operations as a fighter pilot.
