Govt removes I-Day video featuring Pakistani fighter jets with tricolour

Mangalore Today News Network

New Delhi, Aug 13, 2016: A video posted on Twitter by the culture ministry for Independence Day celebrations was removed after Twitter users pointed out that the featured jets were Pakistani aircraft.

The opening portion of the over-one- minute video celebrating ‘70 years of Independence’ featured an animated sequence of the two JF-17 flying with the Indian flag.

A government source said it was an inadvertent mistake as the JF-17 looks similar to India’s Tejas light combat aircraft and it is difficult for an ordinary citizen to know the difference between the two types of aircraft.

However, realising the mistake, it was removed promptly, the source added.

The JF-17 jet was jointly developed by Pakistan and China and both nations are promoting it big time to garner global supply orders. Sri Lanka, which was in talks for the JF-17, has rejected the aircraft and is now eyeing Tejas.

Pakistan intends to make it the main stay of its fighter fleet.

This is not the first time that authorities in India and Pakistan have mistakenly featured military hardware from the other country in promotional materials.

In March 2011, an advertisement issued by the Pakistan Navy for the Aman-11 multi-national exercise prominently featured images of Indian Navy warships.

The full-page advertisement, which appeared in several Pakistani newspapers, featured the Indian Navy’s Delhi, Godavari and Talwar-class warships.

In January 2010, an Indian government advertisement featured former Pakistan Air Force chief Tanvir Mahmood Ahmed alongside Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and cricketer Kapil Dev.