Pakistan on Saturday strongly denied claims by Afghan authorities that a Pakistani fighter jet had been shot down in Jalalabad, calling the allegation “totally untrue.”
Foreign Office spokesperson Tahir Hussain Andrabi dismissed the reports, stating that there was no truth to assertions that a Pakistani aircraft had crashed or that a pilot had been captured.
“That’s a false claim. Totally untrue,” the spokesperson said in response to the allegations.
Afghan Officials Claim Jet Was Downed
Earlier, Afghan military and police officials had claimed that a Pakistani fighter jet was shot down in Jalalabad’s sixth district and that the pilot was captured alive after parachuting from the aircraft.
Police spokesperson Tayeb Hammad and eastern Afghanistan military spokesperson Wahidullah Mohammadi both said Afghan forces were responsible for downing the jet.
Rising Tensions
The competing claims come amid heightened cross-border tensions between Islamabad and Kabul following recent military exchanges along the Pakistan-Afghanistan border.
No independent verification of the incident has been reported so far.
