Jaishankar's remarks misrepresented, says MEA on Rahul Gandhi's criticism

New Delhi: The Ministry of External Affairs on Saturday described as "utter misrepresentation" claims that External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar acknowledged that India alerted Pakistan before the launch of Operation Sindoor on May 7.

The clarification came after Congress leader Rahul Gandhi's criticism of the government suggesting that the Indian side informed Pakistan ahead of the military strikes on terrorist infrastructure in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK).

"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," the external publicity (XP) division of the ministry said.

"This is being falsely represented as being before the commencement. This utter misrepresentation of facts is being called out," it said in a brief statement.

Gandhi, in a social media post, asked who had authorised the decision to inform Pakistan.

"Informing Pakistan at the start of our attack was a crime. EAM has publicly admitted that GOI did it," Gandhi said.

"1. Who authorised it? 2. How many aircraft did our air force lose as a result?" he asked.

Gandhi also shared a video clip of Jaishankar's interaction with reporters where he talked about some aspects of the Operation Sindoor and India's strike on the terror infrastructure in Pakistan and PoK.

Under Operation Sindoor, India, on early May 7, destroyed nine terror infrastructures in Pakistan and Pakistan-Occupied-Kashmir (PoK) in retaliation against the Pahalgam terror attack.

All subsequent retaliations by Pakistan were carried out under the operation.

The two sides reached an understanding on cessation of hostilities on May 10 after four days of confrontations.