New Delhi: 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.

According to report, Defence minister has rejected as “baseless” the US magazine report that claimed that none of Pakistan’s F-16s were missing and said that the article was “source-based”. She further said that if none of the US-manufactured fighter jets of the Pakistan Air Force (PAF) were missing then how come the part of AM-RAAM missile, which is used in F-16 was found in India.

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The statement of the Defence Minister came after the Washington-based magazine Foreign Police reported on Thursday that the US defence personnel recently conducted a physical count of Pakistan’s F-16s and found all intact and none missing. The article also quoted unidentified defence officials as saying that America has not found any planes, supplied to Pakistan, missing from the inventory.

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However, the US defence department, reportedly said that it was not aware that an investigation was conducted to find out whether Pakistan’s F-16 was shot down by Indian Air Force’s (IAF) fighter jet in February.

Sitharaman told news agency ANI. “The IAF gave proof on it with the electronic signature of F-16. Whoever has written it, it's baseless and source based. The part of AM-RAAM missile, which is used only with F-16, how was it found in India?,”

India maintains that Pakistan’s F-16 was shot down by Wing Commander Abhinandan Varthaman, who was flying a MiG 21 Bison of the Indian Air Force (IAF) in a dogfight on February 27.