India seeks US view on use of F-16 for offensive action

NEW DELHI: India has raised its concerns with Washington on Pakistan using US-supplied defence equipment for “offensive action” against India, and hoped that the Trump administration would publicly clarify its position in the coming days.

The issue was raised during foreign secretary Vijay Gokhale's visit to the US for the Strategic Security Dialogue between the two countries, people in the know said.

It is understandable if Pakistan uses F16 fighter jets in self-defence but these were used for offensive action against India to target military installations and the plan was thwarted due to alertness of the Indian Air Force, the people said. The US has taken note of India's concerns and there is hope that it will publicly clarify on the AMRAAM missile was used by Pakistan, sources claimed.

India has already presented the wreckage of a US-supplied AMRAAM missile as a conclusive evidence that Pakistan had used an F16 fighter aircraft to target military installations in Jammu and Kashmir.

Gokhale emphasised during his meetings in Washington that US taxpayers’ money was used to subsidise weapons that Pakistan had promised to use only in the war on terror.

As part of a deal cleared in 2008, the US had provided at least 500 of the AIM 120 AMRAAM air-to-air missiles. Some of these were used by Pakistani Air Force F16 jets on the morning of February 27 in a ‘first strike’ attack on Indian Air Force Su 30 MKIs, Mirage 2000 and MiG 21 Bisons jets that were operating within the Indian territory, New Delhi has told Washington. The AMRAAM was fired at least four times by Pakistani jets that targeted an Indian air patrol that had gone to counter an intrusion over the Nowshera sector.