Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Saturday rejected the claim made by Foreign Policy magazine that India’s assertion about shooting down a Pakistani F-16 jet during a dogfight on February 27 was untrue. “United States personnel recently counted Islamabad’s F-16s and found none missing,” the report had claimed.

“Yesterday, officials of the Indian Air Force had issued a statement and released electronic signatures, showing the type of the aircraft,” Sitharaman said at a rally in Vadodara, The Indian Express reported. “It was an F-16 which our pilot had shot down. The evidence was shown. Earlier too, we had shown proof by displaying a piece of the missile which can only be used in an F-16 aircraft.”

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The defence minister said many people had voiced their opposition to the Foreign Policy article. “When I was coming here, someone showed me on social media that US officials are saying that they did not conduct any such investigation,” Sitharaman added. She asked the Foreign Policy reporter to check his facts.

The Indian Air Force had released a statement on Friday asserting it had shot down a Pakistan F-16 fighter aircraft on February 27 and thwarted a retaliatory attempt from the neighbouring country after the Balakot air strikes, PTI reported. The Air Force said it had intercepted a “large force” of Pakistani aircraft and during the ensuing aerial engagement, one of its MiG-21 Bisons had shot down an F-16 in Nowshera, Jammu and Kashmir.

Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan had on Saturday accused the Bharatiya Janata Party of “whipping up war hysteria” to win the Lok Sabha elections. “The truth always prevails and is always the best policy,” Khan tweeted. “BJP’s attempt to win elections through whipping up war hysteria and false claims of downing a Pakistani F-16 has backfired with US Defence officials also confirming that no F-16 was missing from Pakistan’s fleet.”