New Delhi: Abhinandan Varthaman who was flying a MiG-21 Bison shot down an F-16 fighter jet of Pakistan Air Force by firing an air-to-air missile before his plane was hit during a fierce dogfight.

Meanwhile, Pakistani Air Force still denies that it has lost an F-16 twin-seat fighter jet to an older generation Indian MiG-21 fighter jet. Senior IAF Officer said that the pilot killed in F-16 crash was Wing Commander Shahzaz Ud Din of No 19 Squadron which belongs to PAF’s F-16 Squadron. Shahzaz is the son of Air Marshal Waseem Ud Din, Deputy Chief of Air Staff (Operations) PAF.

MiG-21 Bison pilot Abhinandan Varthaman destroyed all the documents on him, ate some and drowned others in a pond, and raised patriotic slogans before he was captured by the local youth. The description comes from Pakistan’s own Dawn newspaper.

Abhinandan had “emerged out of the parachute” and asked the local youths whether he was in Pakistan or India and raised patriotic slogans.  

According to the Dawn report, Abhinandan “ran a distance of half a kilometre in backward direction while pointing his pistol towards the boys who were chasing him.”

The report further said that Abhinandan then destroyed the documents on his person after firing several shots to scare the Pakistanis away. “During this brisk movement, he fired some more gunshots in the air to frighten them but to no avail, he said. Then he jumped into a small pond where he took out some documents and maps from his pockets, some of which he tried to swallow and soaked others in the water.”

According to the report, Abhinandan had given his captors “quite a tough time” before the army arrived and took him into their custody. In his valiant clash with the Pakistanis, he was roughed up.

The detained pilot was then taken to an army installation in Bhimber in a convoy of military vehicles, the report said.