In a follow-up to his two-day-old post accusing External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar of committing a “crime” by informing Pakistan before launching an airstrike, Leader of the Opposition in Lok Sabha, Rahul Gandhi, on Monday again targeted the minister alleging “EAM Jaishankar’s silence isn’t just telling — it’s damning.”

”EAM Jaishankar’s silence isn’t just telling — it’s damning. So I’ll ask again: How many Indian aircraft did we lose because Pakistan knew? This wasn’t a lapse. It was a crime. And the nation deserves the truth,” he said, reiterating his previous question in a post shared on X.

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Mr Gandhi had previously, on Saturday, accused Mr Jaishankar of committing a “crime” by informing Pakistan before launching an airstrike.

In support of his accusation, Mr Gandhi had posted a video clip on his WhatsApp channel, showing Jaishankar saying: “At the start of the operation, we have sent a message to Pakistan saying we are striking a terrorist infrastructure. We are not striking at the military. So the military has an option of standing out and not interfering in this process.”

Asserting that the “EAM has publicly admitted that GOI did it, Mr Gandhi asked “who authorised it?….. How many aircrafts did our air force lose as a result?”

However, the government has since refuted the allegations, saying Mr Gandhi’s claims were “misleading.”

The Fact Check Unit of the Press Information Bureau clarified that no such admission was made by the EAM.

In yet another clarification, the PIB unit also denied reports that Mr Jaishankar had said Chinese satellites assisted Pakistan during its military confrontation with India.

Separately, the Ministry of External Affairs also called the allegations “misrepresentation of facts.”

Clarifying that the government had warned Pakistan at “the early phase after Operation Sindoor’s commencement” and not before it, the external publicity division of the MEA said: “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.”

The accusations and clarifications assume significance as they come in the aftermath of India’s Operation Sindoor, a retaliatory response to the April 22 terror attack in Pahalgam, which claimed 26 lives.

Meanwhile, Congress leader Pawan Khera also raised serious concerns over the government’s handling of national security issues.

Addressing a press conference on Monday, Mr Khera claimed that India had informed Pakistan before conducting strikes on terrorist sites and it was a “grave error of judgment.”

“What is there to inform them? Do we trust terrorists to remain at those locations? Every citizen, and the whole world, has seen what EAM Jaishankar said- that Pakistan was informed we would only target terror sites. This misplaced trust puts our national security at risk,” Khera said.

He further alleged that “after the statement of EAM Dr S Jaishankar, we are being ridiculed in Pakistan and across the world. That is why Rahul Gandhi is repeatedly asking what damage the country suffered from this forewarning. It is important to know how many planes were lost, what damage the country suffered, and how many terrorists escaped.”