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Updated: Mar 01, 2019 00:38 IST

India presented at a joint briefing on Thursday parts of an AMRAAM missile fired by Pakistani F-16 jets at military installations in Jammu and Kashmir’s Rajouri to contradict Islamabad’s claim that it had not used F-16 jets in its aerial strike yesterday.

The evidence is crucial to establishing use of the F-16 jets in the offensive since the US, which sold the jets to Islamabad, doesn’t allow these platforms to be used in an offensive posture.

The unusual briefing, conducted against the backdrop of the Defence Ministry at Raisina Hill, was addressed by senior officers of the three services, Army, Navy and Air Force. The briefing was as much of an effort to call out Pakistan on its retaliatory strike as it was to assure the country that the defence forces were prepared to meet any eventuality.

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In between, they also packed in a sharp message for Pakistan.”If they provoke us any further, we are prepared for exigencies”, said Army Maj Gen SS Mahal.

“There is enough evidence to show that F-16s were used in this mission and Pakistan is trying to hide this fact. Also, parts of AMRAAM Air to Air Missile which is carried only on the F-16s in PAF were recovered East of Rajouri within the Indian territory,” the IAF said.

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The air force said this was one of the several factually incorrect statements that emerged from Pakistan after its fighter jets violated Indian airspace in an effort to target military installations.

“Pakistan claimed that they intentionally dropped weapons in open space where there was no human presence or military posts. The fact is that the PAF aircraft targeted military installations,” the IAF said.

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