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India calls Pakistan February 27 memorial 'lie, deceit, deception cast in stone'

WION
New Delhi Written By: Sidhant SibalUpdated: Sep 14, 2019, 09:36 PM IST
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The memorial has names of Pakistani officials who took part in the operation and wings of two Indian Air Force planes that Pakistan claims to have struck down (source: Pakistan forces). Photograph:(Others)

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The memorial was inaugurated on September 7, Pakistan's air force day and is located at Sargodha Air Base near the eastern city of Lahore. 

India slammed Pakistan for a memorial dedicated to the events of February 27 when it launched a direct attack on Indian military installations after New Delhi's counter-terror strike on Jaish-e-Mohammed terror camps a day earlier. 

New Delhi dismissed it as another propaganda attempt by Islamabad saying it is a "lie, deceit, deception cast in stone". 

Calling the structure based on "false notion of victory", an Indian government source said, "unfortunately Pak Army & ISPR ( Inter-Services Public Relations is the media wing of the Pakistan Armed Forces) is taking the whole nation with 220m population down."

The memorial was inaugurated on September 7, Pakistan's air force day and is located at Sargodha Air Base near the eastern city of Lahore. 

The memorial has names of Pakistani officials who took part in the operation and wings of two Indian Air Force planes -- one MiG 21 Bison & Su 30 MKI -- Pakistan claims to have struck down. 

While India accepts one MiG 21 Bison was shot down whose pilot Wing commander Abhinandan Varthaman was captured but under global pressure, Islamabad released him soon, there is no proof of another Indian plane being shot down. 

On the memorial, it is also written that Pakistan used F16s which was flown by Sqn Ldr Hassan Mehmood Siddique using AMRAAM Missile, that was used on Indian military installations.

Two graves below the memorial contain two Pakistani Pilots who went down on February 27, 2019 though Islamabad has never owned it up.

India had launched the strikes in response to Pulwama terror attacks on February 14 that killed more than 40 Indian security personnel.