Rahul Kanwal
In an interview, Chaudhry Fawad Hussain said no American warplane had been deployed India Today's findings revealed Nauman Ali Kahn is an F-16 pilot Sourced images show Khan taking part in joint military exercise with US Air Force in 2010
Pakistan has consistently denied scrambling F-16s against India in last month's aerial combat that followed the IAF raid on terror camps at Balakot in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
"They said they shot down a Pakistani F-16. Pakistan, in the first place, did not use F-16s," said Major-General Asif Ghafoor, their military spokesman, on February 27, a day after the Indian strikes happened.
In an interview to an Australian network on March 1 in Punjabi, Pakistan's federal minister Chaudhry Fawad Hussain echoed that no American warplane had been deployed so far.
PAKISTAN SPRINGS SURPRISE, IDENTIFIES FEB 27 PILOTS
But, five days later, Pakistan's Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi made a startling claim in the country's National Assembly -- he identified two pilots involved in the February 27 battle.
One of them was Wing-Commander Nauman Ali Khan who he praised in the Pakistani assembly for attacking Indian aircraft.
Wing-Commander Nauman Ali Khan.
PAKISTAN PILOT'S 10-YEAR SORTIES ON F-16s
India Today's Open-Source Intelligence team tracked down Wing-Commander Khan's flying record spanning a decade.
The findings revealed he's a career F-16 pilot.
A pilot Pakistan officially identified for attacking Indian aircraft last month did fly an F-16, the probe established.
Here's how India Today's OSINT investigation nailed Islamabad's lies that no American fighter jet was used in the aerial engagement post Balakot.
PAK-US WAR GAMES IN 2010
India Today's OSINT team sifted through Wing Commander Nauman Ali Khan's background through all available open sources.
The first phase of India Today's investigation pointed to Nevada, home to Las Vegas in the United States.
Images sourced from US military showed Wing-Commander Nauman Ali Khan participating in a joint military exercise with the US Air Force at the Nellis base in Nevada back in July 2010.
Images showed him walking confidently inside the American air force facility and preparing to fly a Pakistan Air Force F-16. Wing-Commander Nauman Ali Khan is also pictured in a group photograph at the Nellis base.
The clips conclusively confirm the Pakistani pilot flew F-16s nine years ago and represented his country in one of the world's most prestigious aerial war games in the United States.
F-16 SORTIES WITH PAF CHIEF
Cut forward to the Pakistan National Day on March 23, 2018.
India Today's OSINT team scrutinized images and videos from the event showing Pakistan Air Chief Marshal Mujahid Anwar Khan at a military facility, ready to fly an F-16.
Wing-Commander Nauman Ali Khan is spotted in the clips, his shoulder patch displaying 2,000 hours on the US-supplied jets.
And the patch the pilot puts on the PAF chief's flight-suit, when zoomed in, identified the squadron -- the Pakistan Air Force's F-16-equipped 5th squadron.
Wing-Commander Nauman Ali Khan is then seen in flying gear right behind the Pakistan air chief before they jump into an F-16 for a flypast.
POST-BALAKOT PAT
On March 4 this year, the PAF chief visited the forward operating bases. Open-source images and videos investigated by India Today's OSINT team show Air Chief Marshal Mujahid Anwar Khan greeting Wing-Commander Nauman Ali Khan with a pat, apparently for his role in Indian intrusions.
The OSINT evidence doesn't just speak for itself -- it shouts out loud that Pakistan did fly F-16s on February 27 in violation of end-use agreements that restrict their use to anti-insurgency operations.
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