2019 India–Pakistan border skirmishes (feb 14, 2019 – mar 22, 2019)

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In the aftermath of the Pulwama attack on 14th February 2019, a standoff emerged between India and Pakistan consisting of cross-border airstrikes and exchanges of gunfire between India and Pakistan across the de facto border in the disputed Kashmir region, which is subject to extensive territorial claims by both countries.

The Pulwama attack in Jammu and Kashmir had killed 40 Indian Central Reserve Police Force personnel. Responsibility for the attack was claimed by a Pakistan-based militant group, Jaish-e-Mohammed. India blamed Pakistan for the attack and promised a robust response, while the latter condemned the attack and denied having any connection to it.

12 days later, in the early morning of 26th February 2019, India carried out a cross-border airstrike near Balakot, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan.

Pakistan's military, the 1st to announce the airstrike that same morning, claimed that Indian warplanes had crossed the international border and dropped their payload in an uninhabited wooded hilltop area near Balakot in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. India, confirming the airstrike later that day, characterised it to be a preemptive strike directed against a terrorist training camp, and claimed that it had caused the deaths of a "large number" of terrorists.

The 2nd airstrike, a retaliatory one by Pakistan, was conducted in the daytime on 27th February, inside Indian-administered Kashmir. During this airstrike, a dogfight between Indian and Pakistani fighter jets resulted in the downing of an Indian MiG-21 Bison by the Pakistan Air Force. Its pilot, Wing Commander Abhinandan Varthaman, was captured by the Pakistani military and later returned to India on 1st March.

On the same hours of PAF retaliatory strikes on 27th February 2019, an Indian Mi-17 helicopter was brought down by friendly fire in which all IAF airmen on board were killed, including Squadron Leaders Siddharth Vashisht and Ninad Mandavgan. IAF Chief RKS Bahaduria acknowledged IAF's failure only a year later on 4th October 2019, terming friendly fire as "a big mistake". Resultantly Group Captain Suman Roy Choudhry Chief Operations Officers (COO) of Srinagar Air Force Station was dismissed from his service in 2023.

Aftermath analysis of open-source satellite imagery by the American Atlantic Council's Digital Forensics Laboratory, San Francisco-based Planet Labs, European Space Imaging and the Australian Strategic Policy Institute concluded that India did not hit any targets of significance on the Jaba hilltop site near Balakot in Pakistan.

On 10th April 2019, 1½ months later, a group of international journalists, who were taken to the Jaba hilltop in a tightly controlled trip arranged by the Pakistani government, although unable to make a knowledgeable evaluation, found the largest building there to show no evidence of damage or recent rebuilding efforts.

The US count of PAF's F-16 fleet confirmed PAF lost no aircraft during its dogfight with IAF. The claim of IAF of shooting down a F-16 was also rejected by various international observers.

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