Lockheed Martin India has denied claims made by a senior Pakistani government official that the former was planning to sue India for wrongly claiming to down Pakistan’s F-16.
Taking to Twitter, Danyal Gilani, who is the Director in Information Minister’s office, had written, “F-16 manufacturer Lockheed Martin to file law suit against false Indian claims & expresses annoyance over the factually incorrect claim of shooting down of Pakistan’s F-16 by IAF. Says all F-16s on Pakistani inventory are well accounted for!”
Gilani had also posted a link to a nondescript website to support his claim. However, Lockheed Martin India replied to his tweet denying his claims. It said, “Lockheed Martin has made no such comments.”
Lockheed Martin has made no such comments.
— Lockheed Martin India (@LMIndiaNews) March 1, 2019
Left red-faced, Gilani tweeted, “Thank you @LMIndiaNews. I acknowledge the statement is wrongly attributed to you. I picked it from a website. I take it back. However, I stand by Govt of #India’s failure to prove it downed a #Pakistani F-16. Indian media & journalists have caught #Indian govt disinformation.”
Thank you @LMIndiaNews. I acknowledge the statement is wrongly attributed to you. I picked it from a website. I take it back. However, I stand by Govt of #India‘s failure to prove it downed a #Pakistani F-16. Indian media & journalists have caught #Indian govt disinformation.
— Danyal Gilani (@DanyalGilani) March 2, 2019
He has also deleted his original tweet since then.
Several Indian media reports had claimed that India’s MiG 21 downed an F-16 during an aerial combat on 27 February, when India’s Wing Commander Abhinandan was captured by Pakistan. Wing Commander Abhinandan was flying MiG 21 before his fighter aircraft fell inside the neighbouring country’s territory.
The Indian Air Force on 28 February had displayed the cover of AMRAAM missile fired from Pakistani F-16 aircrafts. They had said that Pakistan used F-16 to target Indian military installations in Jammu and Kashmir.