A video circulating on social media claiming that external affairs minister Dr. S. Jaishankar admitted India lost multiple fighter jets — including three Rafales — during a recent clash with Pakistan, has been digitally manipulated, a fact-check by the Press Trust of India (PTI) has confirmed.
The video, widely shared on X by a user identified as @iUdhoke on July 3, appeared to show Dr. Jaishankar acknowledging the loss of Indian jets in the aftermath of the Pahalgam terror attack in Jammu and Kashmir.
The clip, which garnered over 15,000 views at the time of publishing, features a quote attributed to the minister: “They did it anyway. We responded quickly, and the next morning, Mr. Rubio called me and said the Pakistanis were ready to talk.”
The accompanying caption stated: "India's EAM Jaishankar has finally admitted the loss of multiple fighter jets to Pakistan, including three Rafales. It was very unfair of Pakistan to target Indian jets."
The PTI Fact Check Desk found multiple discrepancies in the video and its claims.
Using the InVid verification tool, investigators extracted several keyframes from the video and ran them through Google Lens.
This led to the discovery of multiple other social media posts sharing the same video with identical claims. Archived versions of these posts were also reviewed.
PTI then conducted a thorough keyword-based search on Google to find any credible reports supporting the alleged statement.
No such reports were found. Given the magnitude of such a claim — the loss of Rafale fighter jets in active conflict — it would have garnered media coverage, which was notably absent.
Further analysis traced the origin of the video to a Newsweek event posted on the magazine's official YouTube channel on July 1.
PTI matched the background from the viral clip with the one seen in the Newsweek video, confirming it was taken from that event.
A review of the full-length footage revealed that at the 43:05-minute mark, Dr. Jaishankar indeed said, “...the Pakistanis did attack us massively that night. We responded very quickly thereafter. And the next morning, Mr. Rubio called me up and said that the Pakistanis were ready to talk.”
At no point did he mention any loss of Indian aircraft, let alone Rafales.
Resemble Detect, an AI-based voice analysis tool showed that the audio had been tampered with and was not an accurate representation of Dr. Jaishankar’s original remarks.
(With inputs from PTI)
