'Misrepresentation of facts': MEA clarifies EAM Jaishankar's 'warned Pakistan' remark

NEW DELHI: The ministry of external affairs rejected leader of opposition in Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi's accusations against external affairs minister S Jaishankar claiming that he informed Pakistan ahead of Operation Sindoor. Calling it a "misrepresentation of facts", MEA clarified that the government had warned Pakistan at "the early phase after Operation Sindoor’s commencement" and not before it.The MEA external publicity division said that Jaishankar 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,” the ministry said.Congress leader Rahul Gandhi had strongly condemned Jaishankar's statement saying, "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?"Earlier, Kerala unit of Congress had also posted Jaishankar's video demanding answers from the central government over his statement. The Press Information Bureau's fact check unit, however, dismissed the claims and said that Jaishankar had been "misquoted". "The social media post falsely implies from External Affairs Minister @DrSJaishankar's statement that India informed Pakistan before the start of Operation Sindoor. EAM is being misquoted and he has not made this statement," it said.Operation Sindoor was India’s military response targeting terror camps in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK) in the aftermath of the April 22 terror attack in Pahalgam.