Pakistan said its Air Force interceptors shot down five Indian fighter jets in an air battle early on May 7.
“In an hour-long dogfight, our pilots destroyed the enemy (Indian) fighter jets into pieces,” Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif told the country’s parliament in the capital Islamabad in a televised address late on May 7.
Mr Sharif praised the Pakistani military’s readiness “to deal with enemy aircraft”.
He also told lawmakers that India used dozens of fighter jets to attack targets inside Pakistan early on May 7, killing at least 31 people and injuring dozens.
“A few days ago, India was boasting about buying Rafale jets, but one should not be too proud. These jets are operational, but our air force is also prepared,” he said.
“We are both a nuclear nation and a conventional warfighting nation. There is no higher respect and honor than this,” he added.
Mr Sharif did not elaborate on how Pakistan had responded to the Indian attack. His office said the country’s military had been “authorised to take appropriate action in this regard”.
According to a Pakistani security source, the air battle between Pakistani and Indian aircraft was one of the “largest and longest air battles in recent aviation history”.
A total of 125 fighter jets fought for more than an hour, with neither side leaving its own airspace, and missile exchanges taking place at distances sometimes exceeding 100 miles.
An Indian air force pilot was shot down over Pakistani territory before being returned to India.
Earlier, Pakistan announced that it had shot down five Indian Air Force fighter jets in retaliation for the airstrike early yesterday morning. Among the downed aircraft is believed to have been the Rafale, a highly sophisticated multirole fighter jet made in France.
In statements, India only said that three of its military aircraft crashed, but did not confirm or deny that five aircraft were shot down by Pakistan.
India also said its early-morning strikes on May 7 targeted only “terror infrastructure” inside Pakistan. The operation was in response to an attack believed to be linked to Pakistani militant groups in Indian-administered Kashmir that killed 26 people last month.
An unnamed senior French intelligence official confirmed that an Indian Air Force Rafale military aircraft had been shot down by Pakistan, marking the first time one of the sophisticated French-made fighter jets had been destroyed in combat.
According to the official, French authorities are investigating whether more than one Rafale jet was shot down by Pakistan.
Photographs of parts of the plane that crashed in Indian-administered Kashmir show the French manufacturer’s mark, but experts say it is impossible to determine whether it is from a Rafale.
Dassault Aviation, the manufacturer of the Rafale, has not commented.
The Rafale is a 10-ton, twin-engine multirole fighter equipped with air-to-air missiles, laser-guided bombs and cruise missiles.
Before this latest escalation, India had 36 Rafale jets in its Air Force, purchased from French manufacturer Dassault Aviation.
