IAF scrambled fighters on Sunday night to tackle four Pakistani F-16s flying close to border in Punjab

Indian Air Force (IAF) on Sunday night scrambled Sukhoi 30 and Mirage 2000 fighter jets to chase away a Pakistani package of four F-16s flying close to Punjab border, ANI reported.

The Pakistani F-16s were flying with a surveillance drone possibly trying to detect the deployment of Indian troops in border areas.

Sources: At 3 AM today, Indian radars detected a large sized UAV & package of 4 Pakistani F-16s flying close to Indian border in Khemkaran sector in Punjab. India scrambled Su-30MKIs & Mirage jets in response after which the Pakistani jets retreated further into their territory. pic.twitter.com/ZKTbw8zPZo — ANI (@ANI) April 1, 2019

The incident happened at 3 am this morning and the swift action by IAF's Su-30MKIs and Mirage-2000 fighter jets forced the Pakistani F-16s to retreat further into their territory.

The latest intrusion bid by Pakistani fighter jets comes close on the heels of heightened tension between India and Pakistan following the air strikes carried out by IAF's Mirage 2000 jets at Balakot inside Pakistan on February 26. The daring pre-dawn air strikes were carried out to decimate the biggest terror camp of Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM). The attacks were '100%' successful as the laser-guided bombs dropped by Indian fighter jets completely destroyed the Jaish terror camps.

The IAF launched the attack 11 days after a Jaish suicide bomber carried out a dastardly terror attack on a CRPF convoy in Jammu and Kashmir Pulwama distrcit. The attack which took place on February 14 resulted in the deaths if 40 CRPF personnel.

Responding to Indian air strikes inside its territory, Pakistan tried to violate the Indian airspace on February 27 but the Pakistani F-16 fighter jets were thwarted by IAF's jets. The Pakistani jets dropped four bombs - none on their intended targets - while they were chased back by Indian fighter jets.

An Indian MiG-21 Bison, however, crash-landed in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir after an intense aerial dogfight with Pakistani jets and it’s pilot Wing Commander Abhinandan Varthaman was captured by Pakistan’s Army. The incident sparked a national outrage and Indian government put immnese presssure on Pakistan, forcing Islamabad to release Abhinandan to to India two days later.

Some recent reports had suggested that India and Pakistan were very close to a full-scale war and any harm to Abhinandan could have prompted India to launch a major offensive against its neighbour.