Gp Capt Abhinandan receives Vir Chakra for downing Pak jet

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Tribune News Service

New Delhi, November 22

The government on Monday reiterated that Group Captain Abhinandan Varthaman, flying an MiG 21 fighter jet, had shot down Pakistan’s F-16 aircraft in an air duel on February 27, 2019, a day after the Balakot air strikes. He was awarded Vir Chakra by President Ram Nath Kovind during an investiture ceremony at Rashtrapati Bhawan.

Though the award had been announced earlier, Covid protocols delayed the physical ceremony. The citation of the IAF pilot spoke about the air duel. “He pursued a retreating enemy fighter bomber aircraft and in the ensuing aerial combat, shot down an F-16 jet with his on-board missile,” it said. The citation makes it official that Vir Chakra was conferred on him for downing an F-16 jet, among other acts of bravery, including his capture after ejecting over Pakistan-occupied Kashmir.

US-based think tanks have in the past questioned if an F-16, made by Lockheed Martin, was shot down that day in the air duel. Christine Fair, a well-regarded academic, had questioned the claim of the IAF and stirred up a heated debate at the Military Literature Festival in Chandigarh in December 2019 saying, “I say this clearly with 100 per cent certitude that there was no F-16 struck down.”