Informing Pakistan ahead of Operation Sindoor was a crime, says Rahul; MEA refutes claims

New Delhi: Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Saturday lashed out at the government for "informing" Pakistan about targeting terror infrastructure as part of Operation Sindoor, saying it was a crime and asking who had authorised it.

In a post on X, Gandhi questioned External Affairs Minister (EAM) S Jaishankar for publicly admitting that the Indian government had informed Pakistan of the military action and asked how many aircraft the Indian Air Force lost as a result.

"Informing Pakistan at the start of our attack was a crime. EAM has publicly admitted that the GOI did it. Who authorised it? How many aircraft did our air force lose as a result?" asked Gandhi, the Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha.

He also shared an undated video of Jaishankar saying India had informed Pakistan of the action against terror infrastructure on its soil, PTI reported.

Jaishankar can be heard saying in the video, "At the start of the operation, we had sent a message to Pakistan, saying, 'We are striking at terrorist infrastructure and we are not striking at the military.'

"So the military has the option of standing out and not interfering in this process. They chose not to take that good advice," the minister can be heard saying in the clip.

According to an ANI tweet, the EAM on Saturday refuted claims that Jaishankar had said that India informed Pakistan ahead of Operation Sindoor. “The External Affairs minister had stated that we had warned Pakistan at the start, which is clearly the early phase after Operation Sindoor’s commencement,” said the External Publicity (XP) division of the ministry.

The MEA termed the claims as an "utter misrepresentation of facts”. The Press Information Bureau (PIB) also debunked such claims. In a post on X, the PIB's Fact Check Unit said the minister had not made any such statement and that he was being misquoted.

Operation Sindoor was the Indian offensive against terror camps in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK) following the terror attack in Pahalgam on April 22.