Trump claims seven ‘brand-new, beautiful’ aircraft shot down in India-Pakistan clash

New Delhi: Seven “brand-new, beautiful” aircraft were shot down during the May 7-10 cross-border military flare-up between India and Pakistan, United States President Donald Trump said in Tokyo, reiterating his claim that he had brokered the ceasefire between the two South Asian nations.

Though he had earlier claimed in the past that seven aircraft of the Indian and Pakistani armed forces were shot down during the conflict, this was the first time he described the planes as “brand-new” and “beautiful”. He made the comment during dinner with the American and Japanese business leaders in Tokyo on Monday.

“If you look at India and Pakistan, they were going at it. Seven brand-new, beautiful planes were shot down,” Trump said, apparently in a bid to explain the intensity of the conflict, which followed India’s precision strikes on terrorist camps in Pakistan as well as in India’s territory illegally occupied by Pakistan on May 7. He, however, did not clarify which side had lost the aircraft in the conflict.

India had carried out the strikes in response to the killing of 26 people – mostly tourists – at Baisaran near Pahalgam in Jammu and Kashmir by the terrorists who had come from Pakistan.

Chief of the Air Staff Air Chief Marshal A P Singh had earlier this month said that the Indian Air Force (IAF) had neutralised 11-12 aircraft of Pakistan, including F-16 and JF-17 fighter jets, during the four-day conflict. He had dismissed Pakistan’s claim of shooting down seven aircraft of India as fanciful tales.

Trump on Monday said that he had told Prime Minister Narendra Modi of India and Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif of Pakistan, as well as Field Marshal Asim Munir of the Pakistan Army, that the US would not be doing any trade with either of the two South Asian neighbours if they had not stopped fighting. He claimed that his words had led to a ceasefire within 24 hours. “It was amazing, actually,” Trump said, underlining that he had used the trade to avoid a larger conflict between the two nuclear-armed nations.

India, over the past few months, had repeatedly dismissed the US president’s claims about brokering the ceasefire and insisted that it had agreed to the truce on May 10 after receiving a direct request from Pakistan, which had suffered heavy losses.

Trump, however, continued to repeat his claims.