US keeping close watch on F-16 use by Pakistan: India favours giving 'time' for probe

The United States has said that Washington is taking a close look at the reports of Pakistan having violated the end-user agreement on F-16.

"We are taking a look and we are going to continue to take a look," US State Department Deputy spokesperson Robert Palladino told reporters at his regular news conference on Tuesday.

"We've seen those reports and we are following that issue very closely," he said amid Indian officials suggesting that a dossier on Pakistan's misadventure on February 27 abusing F-16 jet fighter have been provided with the United States.

Commenting on the development on the issue, a source in Delhi said: "We must give the US some time, they must be conducting the investigation on whether Pakistan used F-16".

"Sab kucch wahan haen (Everything is with them)," the source said.

"The fact that Pakistan has to resort to tactics and alleging that the missile came from a Taiwanese inventory and the Taiwan government clearly putting a denial simply indicate the desperation that Pakistan is facing," the source said in Delhi.

Last week, senior Indian Air Force officials displayed 'remains' of a United States-made missile which could only have been fired from an F-16.

The issue has triggered a major row as the US-delivered jets can reportedly only be used against terrorists, not against other countries.

The Imran Khan regime has denied of using F-16 during attack on Indian military installations on February 27.

The Pakistani agencies and authorities apparently wanted to look for an escape route and said the wreckage could have been part of a missile sold by the US to Taiwan.

In fact, a Pakistan daily also reported - "How the wreckage of a missile sold to Taiwan ended up in the hands of an Indian military air vice marshal is something only New Delhi can explain".

The reference was to Air Vice Marshal RGK Kapoor statement that Pakistan has no other plane other than the F-16 to use the AIM-120 Advanced Medium-Range Air-to-Air Missile (AMRAAM) missile beyond visual range air-to-air missile.

But the Taiwan Air Force quickly did their "checks and ascertained" that the identification numbers reported by Pakistan newspaper did not match any of its missiles.

US State Department Deputy spokesperson Palladino further said: "I can't confirm anything, but as a matter of policy, we don't publicly comment on the contents of bilateral agreements that we have in this regard involving US defence technologies".

Paradoxically, a London-based lawyer and commentator Khalid Umar in a rather pensive and ironic mood in a Facebook post last week claimed that F-16 jet fighter deployed by Pakistan during February 27 assault against India was flown by Wg Cdr Shahzaz Ud Din.

According to his Facebook post, Khalid Umar says Pakistani pilot Shahzaz belonged to  No 19 Squadron flying F-16s of Pakistan Air Force.

The Facebook post has gone viral on web and social media and its content has already been reported in a section of media.

"The sad part is that the Pakistani pilot who ejected in the Pakistani occupied part of J&K was hurt but alive when landed but was lynched (beaten mercilessly nearly to death) by the mob who took him as a fallen Indian. When it was identified as 'our own man' and taken to hospital (in Pakistan), he could not survive," wrote Umar.