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Moiz Abbas Shah, Pak officer linked to 2019 Abhinandan Varthaman capture, killed in Taliban clash: Report
India’s February 26 Balakot airstrike in 2019, launched 12 days after the Pulwama attack, triggered the aerial standoff with Pakistan.
Pakistani Army officer Moiz Abbas Shah, who played a role in the 2019 capture of Indian Air Force pilot Abhinandan Varthaman, was among two personnel killed during a clash with Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) militants in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa region.
According to an India Today report, Pakistan’s military confirmed that 11 terrorists were eliminated during an intelligence-based operation (IBO) in South Waziristan district.
However, two security personnel, including Major Shah, also lost their lives in the encounter.
The 2019 India-Pakistan aerial confrontation was triggered by India’s airstrike on a terrorist training camp in Balakot, located in Pakistan’s Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, on February 26—twelve days after the Pulwama attack.
In response, Pakistan deployed around 24 fighter jets to target Indian military installations. This action led to a brief but intense aerial engagement between the two air forces. The dogfight began around 10 am on February 27 and lasted approximately ten minutes, taking place in the skies over Nowshera in Jammu’s Rajouri district. It marked the first direct aerial combat between India and Pakistan since the 1971 war.
During the encounter, India shot down a US-made F-16 belonging to the Pakistan Air Force, according to a report by Hindustan Times. An Indian Air Force pilot, Abhinandan Varthaman, part of the Combat Air Patrol tasked with intercepting the incoming aircraft, was captured after his jet was shot down in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir.
Pakistan’s strike group, which included 12 jets – among them four F-16s and four Mirage aircraft – entered Indian airspace through the Kalal area of the Nowshera sector. These jets had taken off from Nur Khan and Sargodha air bases.
Abhinandan was held captive for about ‘60 hours’
Abhinandan Varthaman, then 35, made military aviation history during the February 27, 2019 aerial dogfight by shooting down a Pakistani F-16 fighter jet just moments before his own MiG-21 Bison was hit by a missile, forcing him to eject. It was widely regarded as the first recorded instance of a MiG-21 Bison downing an F-16, two jets from different generations. He was captured after landing in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir and was held for nearly 60 hours before being released and returned to India on March 1, 2019.
In November 2021, Abhinandan, by then a Group Captain, was awarded the Vir Chakra by President Ram Nath Kovind at a ceremony held at Rashtrapati Bhavan.
The dogfight occurred a day after the Indian Air Force carried out airstrikes on terror camps in Balakot in retaliation for the Pulwama suicide bombing on February 14, 2019, which killed 40 CRPF personnel.
According to his citation, Abhinandan engaged the Pakistani fighter formation despite its “immense numerical and technological superiority,” and his bold manoeuvres led to “tactical chaos” among the enemy aircraft.
He became the first IAF officer to receive the Vir Chakra since the 1999 Kargil War, when Squadron Leader Ajay Ahuja (posthumously) and Wing Commander AK Sinha were honoured with the same wartime gallantry medal.
