For the first time, Pakistan on Wednesday identified its two fighter pilots who were involved in an aerial combat with the Indian Air Force jets as Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi told Parliament that two Indian planes were shot down by them.
Tensions between India and Pakistan flared up after a suicide bomber of Pakistan-based Jaish-e-Mohammed killed 40 CRPF personnel in Jammu and Kashmir's Pulwama district on February 14.
India launched a counter-terror operation in Balakot on February 26. The next day, Pakistan Air Force retaliated and downed a MiG-21 in an aerial combat and captured its pilot Wing Commander Abhinandan Varthaman, who was handed over to India on March 1.
Lauding the PAF pilots in the National Assembly, Qureshi said, "Pakistan Air Force shot down two Indian aircraft violating the Pakistani airspace. One Indian jet was shot down by Squadron Leader Hassan Siddiqui while other was downed by Wing Commander Nauman Ali Khan."
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