Congress leader Rahul Gandhi has accused the government of committing a “crime” by allegedly informing Pakistan before launching Operation Sindoor, a military action targeting terror infrastructure in the wake of the Pahalgam attacks.

Taking to X on Saturday, Gandhi questioned who authorised the move and asked how many aircraft the Indian Air Force lost as a consequence.

"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?" Gandhi posted.

He also shared a video of Union external affairs minister S Jaishankar, in which the minister can be heard saying, “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,” Jaishankar can be heard saying in the video.

The external affairs ministry said facts were being distorted.

“The 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,” a spokesperson for the ministry said.

PIB clarification

Earlier, the Press Information Bureau (PIB) Fact Check Unit had issued a clarification on social media, stating that the external affairs minister had not made such a statement and that he was being misquoted.

"Social media posts quoting EAM @DrSJaishankar are implying that India gave advance information to Pakistan about #OperationSindoor," the PIB said on X.

Sharing a screenshot of the original post, it added, “EAM is being misquoted and he has not made this statement.”

It urged citizens to “remain vigilant and avoid falling for deceptive information.”

In a separate clarification, the PIB also denied reports claiming that Jaishankar had said Chinese satellites assisted Pakistan during its military confrontation with India.

“Several news channels and social media posts have claimed that External Affairs Minister @DrSJaishankar stated Chinese satellites helped Pakistan,” the Fact Check Unit posted, along with a screenshot of a news broadcast.