Pakistan rejects ‘false’ claims that plane was shot down in Nangarhar

Pakistan’s Ministry of Information and Broadcasting on Saturday described as “false” reports spread by Afghan Taliban officials and amplified by Indian media that Afghan forces shot down a Pakistani fighter jet in Nangarhar and captured its pilot.

Videos were seen circulating on social media platforms including X.

Pakistani security forces launched “Operation Ghazab Lil Haq,” carrying out coordinated air and ground strikes against Afghan Taliban positions in Kabul, Kandahar, Paktia and Nangarhar, as well as several other locations, following what officials described as an unprovoked cross-border aggression.

The development comes as the military said Pakistan had “effectively pushed back” Afghan Taliban insurgents in 53 locations along the border, inflicting heavy casualties on them while exercising restraint to avoid harming civilians.

Pakistan’s Ministry of Information and Broadcasting has exposed the false propaganda of Afghan and Indian media regarding the alleged capture of a Pakistani pilot.

The ministry stressed that all Pakistan Air Force planes are accounted for, no losses have been reported and all pilots are safe. In a fact-checking statement, the Pakistani government said there was no official confirmation from Pakistani authorities of any aircraft loss and no independent international media outlets, defense monitoring agencies or satellite intelligence sources had verified the claim.

No proof of plane loss

The narrative relied solely on statements by Afghan officials and selective media amplification.

“There is no visual evidence of the crash debris, wreck site or captured pilot,” the ministry said, adding that no geotagged imagery or satellite evidence supports this claim. He noted that in modern conflict environments, verified plane crashes are usually documented quickly – which did not happen in this case. The ministry further said that the videos circulating on social media as alleged evidence of the plane crash were old or unrelated clips.

According to the fact-check, some viral images originated from an unrelated panic situation in Afghanistan and were recycled to fit a false narrative.

Image related to unrelated incident

A misleading image shared by TOLO Newsclaiming that the photo of a downed plane did not come from Pakistan.

“The image corresponds to a Russian plane incident in Turkey in 2021,” the statement said, calling the reuse of images of unrelated foreign accidents a deliberate attempt to construct a false narrative. The ministry said that over the past two days, hundreds of false or misleading videos linked to what it describes as an Indo-Afghan propaganda ecosystem had been debunked.

Read: Difficult situation of the Afghan Taliban and outcome

He added that the claims about the downing of a plane are part of the same pattern of coordinated disinformation and that credible defense analysts confirm that Afghan forces do not have the operational capacity or air defense systems necessary to shoot down modern Pakistani fighter jets in the manner claimed.

Verdict and opinion

The government concluded that the claim that a Pakistani fighter jet was shot down in Nangarhar and the pilot captured is false, with no verified plane loss or evidence of a pilot in custody. The public is advised not to rely on unverified battlefield claims disseminated by partisan or hostile media and to cross-check information with official Pakistani sources and credible international agencies.

They also advised users to avoid sharing recycled or unverified videos that could be part of coordinated disinformation campaigns.