India claims Pakistan peddling fake news of IAF jet crash
As India woke up to news of Pakistani fighter jets violating Indian airspace, rumours flew thick and fast on social media on both sides of the border.
After Indian Air Force (IAF) carried out airstrike on a Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) terror camps in Pakistan's Balakot town in a pre-dawn operation yesterday (February 26) and destroyed it, Pakistan has been threatening to retaliate, India Today reported.
Pakistani jets violated the Line of Control this morning, prompting IAF fighters to launch counter operations and make them flee.
As Pakistan air force scrambled after being chased down by India, Pakistan claimed that it has shot down an Indian aircraft inside Pakistani airspace.
A statement released by Pakistan said that the Pakistani troops were able to arrest one Indian pilot.
"In response to Pakistan Air Force's (PAF) strikes this morning as released by Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Indian Air Force crossed LoC. PAF shot down two Indian aircrafts inside Pakistani airspace. One of the aircraft fell inside AJ&K while other fell inside IoK. One Indian pilot arrested by troops on ground while two in the area," said Major General Asif Ghafoor, the spokesperson of the Pakistani armed forces.
No evidence to this effect has been released yet.
Not to be undone, Pakistani media peddled all kinds of lies to hide the air force misadventure this morning. The Pakistani Express Tribune ran a story headlined 'PAF strikes Indian targets across LoC, two IAF jets shot down'.
To go with the story they put up a picture of the "wreckage of a downed Indian Air Force jet" which they had reportedly sourced from Radio Pakistan.
The picture in fact is of a 2018 IAF hawk trainer crash in Odisha! The other "proof" Pakistan media is peddling is of a 2016 video of a MiG fighter crash in Rajasthan. Not just Pakistani media, verified twitter handles from Pakistan are peddling such lies to cater to the collective bloodlust on the other side of the border (some of these images were later taken down). If only wars could be won with fake images!
