India tried to bait Pakistan into using its F-16 fighter jet so it could shoot it down: Pakistani official

Amid reports about India downing Pakistani fighter jets, a Pakistani senior intelligence official has claimed that India was trying to bait Pakistan into using its F-16s so that it could shoot it down. However, it is unclear whether Pakistan Air Force (PAF) used the F-16s against India, though there were speculations that India managed to strike down one of the American jets.

The highly placed government official, whose identity has not been revealed, has claimed to the New York Times that New Delhi wanted Islamabad to go beyond a defensive response. "India wanted Pakistan to use its own F-16 fighter jets in a retaliatory attack so they could try to shoot one down," the official said, without providing any evidence to substantiate his assumption.

Though India has not acknowledged it yet, there were reports that Pakistan deployed an F-16 towards India on the intervening night of May 7-8. The F-16 took off from the Sargodha air base in Pakistan. However, speculations are that an Indian Surface-to-air missile shot it down near the air base. 

If true, then it could be a violation of norms, as during the sale of F-16s to Pakistan, the US had mandated that the jets be used exclusively for counter terrorism and counterinsurgency operations. Washington imposed several curbs on its use in the End-Use Monitoring (EUM) agreement, which means Pakistan cannot freely use the jets. However, in 2019, Pakistan said the US not only acknowledged the aircraft’s 'deterrence value' to Pakistan in a future conflict with India but also noted that it could prevent a nuclear clash between the two neighbours.

In 2019, the Indian Air Force (IAF) had claimed that its Soviet-era MiG-21 Bison shot down a Pakistan Air Force’s F-16 fighter jet with a Russian-origin Vympel R-73 missile, a claim denied by Pakistan.

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