It wasn’t just a flippant comment. The ISPR put out an official comment that a second Indian pilot and died in hospital
+ as for the lack of proof, please tell me what images have leaked of the damage done at Balakot? The Pak army took control of the entire area for a week, and then invited foreign journos to tour around once the damage had been cleared up.
There’s sat images to validate balakot.
it wouldn’t be very difficult to clean up a downed airframe that too with the amount of personnel that flooded the area post the incident.
the Pakis have covered up plenty of aircraft losses, why would this be any different?
when has india falsely claimed such things in the past? Why would they double down with the radar plots?
I just don't buy an F-16 being shot down.
There is literally ZERO evidence for it. The only thing which makes it somewhat believable is Pakistan's own lying past, and their dishonesty. However, looking objectively, I fail to see how this happened. For starters, a MiG21 is a generation behind an F-16, and while the MiGs have some upgrades, I still argue it makes them a 3.5 gen aircraft instead of a 3 they were intened to be.
How is it possible that Pakistan is able to hide such a loss for this long? There has to be SOME explanation. The aftermath of Balakot was a clear defeat for India, Balakot itself, however, was a clear victory.
The fact that that an Indian Aircraft could penetrate deep into Pakistan and bomb a terrorist camp is mind blowing of its own. Now, as per Pakistan, we released zero videos. HOWEVER, we are not entitled to release any videos to them. If we did show a video of just the bombing, they would say we faked the video (they literally claim we fake the video of our boys blowing up their bunkers lol). And showing the whole video is pointless and basically exposes the OP. plan to the world, which is pointless. So Pakistan would claim any sort of evidence is fake, like they claimed their own soldiers bodies was fake in Kargil. Hell, I have seen them online literally deny the bodies of their soliders in the Kargil war as Indian Actors.
We know Pakistan closed the area for weeks, the satelite images are dubious at best, and some even show bomb marks on the camp.