In his first remarks post Operation Sindoor and cessation of military action by India and Pakistan, Rahul Gandhi, Leader of the Opposition in Lok Sabha, Saturday targeted External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar for his remarks that India had informed Pakistan about targeting the terrorist infrastructure on its soil.
Stating that it was “a crime” to inform Pakistan “at the start of our attack”, Gandhi sought to know how many aircraft did the IAF “lose as a result”.
The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA), responding to Gandhi’s statement, called it a “misrepresentation of facts”.
Speaking to reporters Thursday, Jaishankar had said “at the start of the operation, we had sent a message to Pakistan saying we are striking at terrorists’ infrastructure. We are not striking at the military. So the military has an option of standing out and not interfering in this process. They chose not to take that good advice.”
Jaishankar was referring to the call made by Director General of Military Operations Lt General Rajiv Ghai to his Pakistani counterpart Major General Kashif Abdullah after the Indian Armed Forces struck nine terror sites in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir between 1 am and 1.30 am on May 7.
Lt Gen Ghai had told his Pakistani counterpart that India had hit “carefully chosen” terror targets and had not targeted military targets. A message was relayed to Pakistan that if it wanted to talk, India was willing to engage.
Gandhi, in a post on X Saturday, said, “Informing Pakistan at the start of our attack was a crime. EAM has publicly admitted that GOI did it. Who authorised it? How many aircraft did our air force lose as a result?”.
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The Ministry of External Affairs, in a statement, said, “External Affairs Minister had stated that we had warned Pakistan at the start, which is clearly the early phase after Op Sindoor’s commencement. This is being falsely represented as being before the commencement. This utter misrepresentation of facts is being called out.”
On May 11, during a media briefing with Director General of Military Operations Lt General Ghai and Navy counterpart Vice Admiral A N Pramod, Director General Air Operation Air Marshal A K Bharti had said he would not like to comment on whether India lost any aircraft in Operation Sindoor due to the prevailing combat situation.
“And impulsive nature of our adversary, and even though we did attempt to reach out and communicate our compulsions to strike at the heart of terror to my counterpart in the immediate wake of Operation Sindoor, the request was brusquely turned down with an intimation that a severe response was inevitable and in the offing. We were, of course, prepared, operations on the 7th and 8th,” DGMO Lt Gen Rajiv Ghai said.
He said losses were part of any combat, and the Indian military had achieved all its selected objectives and all IAF pilots were back home.