The Chinese media has asserted that Pakistan has downed an Indian aircraft and taken the pilot into custody.
The pilot has not identified yet.
The CGTN media organization of China reports that the Pakistani military stated that after downing the Indian aircraft, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif called a meeting of the National Command Authority.
There were social media reports of a Rafale aircraft being brought down, reportedly in Sialkot, and a female pilot captured, although this has not yet been officially confirmed.
Earlier, the Pakistan Army declared the successful destruction of an Indian S-400 air defense system in Adampur, shortly after initiating a military operation, titled Operation Bunyan-un-Marsoos, against India on Saturday.
The $1.5 billion S-400 air defense system was destroyed by hypersonic missiles, fired from JF-17 Thunder jets, security sources added.
The S-400 air defence system is a Russian-produced missile defense system that is generally considered one of the most sophisticated long-range surface-to-air missile (SAM) systems globally.
As NDTV tells us, the system can intercept a wide range of air threats, ranging from aircraft, cruise missiles, to ballistic missiles.
This air defense system includes three components — missile launchers, a high-powered radar, and a command Centre — and can engage aircraft, cruise missiles, and medium-range ballistic missiles.
Moreover, the S-400 air defense system can track targets up to 600 kilometers away and attack nearly all current warplanes.
India signed a $5 billion agreement with Russia in October 2018 to acquire five systems of the S-400 air defence missile systems, considered a primary threat by the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) as they possess long-range capabilities.
Demolition of the air defence system was part of Pakistan’s overall military operation undertaken in retaliation to Indian missile attacks on several air bases.
