I was interested too but couldn’t find any credible source for this engagement apart from some random blogs.
Most likely it’s one of the legends born out of fog of war.
On the contrary the only news source I found was about PAF engaging IAF, as below.
I appreciate that there won’t be an independent source to confirm this, but has anyone seen any official/credible source from Indian side? Anything in the press etc?
PAF engages Indian Air Force
9th July, 1999, APP, Dawn/PNS
ISLAMABAD: In what was a classic pre-dawn interception, air defence interceptors of the Pakistan Air Force, comprising of two PAF F-7MP fighter jets, intercepted and engaged intruding Indian Air Force (IAF) fighter jets which crossed the Line of Control in Jammu & Kashmir and violated Pakistan’s airspace by several kilometres. The IAF fighters were believed to be two MiG-27ML ground-attack aircraft and two Mirage 2000H fighters providng top cover. The event took place in the early hours of Thursday, 8 July 1999, at approximately 2:30 a.m. (0230 hours) PST.
According to sources, PAF F-7MP fighters were supported by two F-16 Fighting Falcons providing back-up which conducted electronic jamming of the intruder IAF ‘bandits’. The F-16s were scrambled whereas the F-7MPs were already on Combat Air Patrol (CAP) duty when the incursion occured.
The PAF F-7MP air defence interceptors were immediately vectored by GCI towards the intruding ‘bandits’ within seconds of their crossing into Pakistan airspace. The PAF fighters intercepted the Indian fighters and ‘locked’ on them with their missiles. In fighter terms, this is an invitation for a dogfight. However, the IAF fighters refused to engage in return and instead fled straight back into the airspace of Indian-held Kashmir in what PAF pilots perceived was sheer panic. “It was not a very orderly or dignified exit”, remarked a PAF officer.
According to PAF sources, even the Dynamic Launch Zone (DLZ) perimetres had been met for launching of the air-to-air missiles which means that the PAF pilots had gotten the AAM tone indicating the bandits were well within shoot-down range of the PAF fighters. A missile tone is achieved when the missile’s infrared heat-seeker or its radar has picked up the hostile aircraft. “It looks as if we gave them a fright”, says a PAF officer, “Their RWR signal would have been blasting off in the cockpits as our interceptors tracked them”. If the missiles were short-range heat-seeking missiles, then this would imply that the distance between the PAF and the IAF fighters was less than 10 kilometres – “Too close for comfort”, as the PAF officer remarked.
PAF fighters did not shoot down the Indian fighters even though they were within range of the air-to-air missiles of the PAF fighters. The Indian fighters were perilously close to the Line of Control and their wreckage may have fallen inside Indian-held Kashmir territory which, going by their track record, would have given the Indian authorities the opportunity to blame the PAF for the intrusion.
According to the PAF Rules of Engagement (ROE), three conditions have to be met in peacetime before an enemy aircraft can be shot down: (i) the enemy aircraft must violate Pakistan’s airspace; (ii) it must be a combat aircraft and (iii) its wreckage must fall inside Pakistani territory. ‘Peacetime’ in the context of India and Pakistan means when no war has been declared.
In this instance, the third criterion may not have been met as the IAF fighters were too close to the LoC and their wreckage may have fallen on either side of the LoC.
“All the intruder Indian fighters fled when our air defence fighters locked on them”, said a PAF officer.
A second intrusion occured seven and a half hours later, at approximately 10:00 a.m. (1000 hours) PST, when two IAF fighter jets violated Pakistan’s airspace in the Mushkoh-Olding sector in Jammu & Kashmir. Two F-7MPs were immediately scrambled from a forward PAF air base to intercept the two intruders. However, the IAF jets sensing the PAF fighters fast approaching them, turned back and fled into Indian-held Kashmir before the PAF interceptors could get a missile lock-on them.
In both cases, the IAF intruders had taken off from Srinagar air base, according to PAF GCI controllers.
It is pertinent to mention here that earlier this year, on 27 May 1999, two intruder Indian Air Force MiGs – a MiG-27ML and a MiG-21bis – were shot down by the Pakistan Army using Anza-II SAMs after the IAF jets had violated Pakistan’s airspace in the Jammu & Kashmir region. The wreckage of both the Indian aircraft fell 10-12 kilometres inside Pakistani territory near Hamzi Ghund. One Indian pilot, Flt. Lt. K. Nachiketa, was captured whereas the other pilot, Sqn. Ldr. Ajay Ahuja, was killed. Sqn. Ldr. Ahuja’s body was returned to India with full military honours and Flt. Lt. Nachiketa was released shortly afterwards.
Typical Pakistan style.
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