After India launched military strikes on terrorist targets in Pakistan early Wednesday, Islamabad claimed that it had shot down five Indian Air Force jets, including three Rafale jets, one Su-30, and one MiG-29.
Later, Pakistan Defence Minister Khawaja Asif claimed his country’s military shot down five Indian jets and took an unknown number of Indian soldiers prisoner, Bloomberg reported.
AFP news agency published photos that showed aircraft wreckage lying in a field next to a red-brick building. Soon, the pictures went viral on internet. However, it was not immediately clear from the pictures of the wreckage who the aircraft belonged to.
Later in the day, in a CNN show, a news anchor asked the Pakistan Defence Minister for the ‘evidence’ linked to the claims.
To this, Khwaja Asif replied, ‘It's all over social media.’
CNN Anchor responded: “....I'm sorry we didn't ask you here to talk about social media content but I am asking for proper evidence.”
In a press conference on Wednesday, Indian officials spoke about the millitary strikes in Pakistan and stated that they were aimed at training camps operated by militant groups Lashkar-e-Tayyiba (LeT) and Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM). However, they did not respond to any of Pakistan's claims and refrained from taking questions from the media.
India’s missile strikes early Wednesday morning targeted “terrorist infrastructure” across nine sites in Pakistan’s densely populated Punjab province and Pakistan-administered Kashmir. Indian goverment claimed that it was a retaliatory attack to the horrific Pahalgam terror attack of April 22.
"The targets for Operation Sindoor were based on credible intelligence inputs and locations that were so selected to avoid damage to civilian infrastructure and loss of civilian lives," Wing Commander Vyomika Singh Singh explained during a press conference.
The strikes, executed between 1:05 am and 1:30 am on Wednesday, involved a coordinated effort by the Indian Army, Navy, and Air Force, targeting key facilities like the JeM and LeT bases in Pakistan as well as PoJK.
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