The Pakistani government said there was no official confirmation from Pakistani authorities of any aircraft loss. [Source:X]
The Ministry of Information and Broadcasting on Saturday dismissed as “false” reports circulated by Afghan Taliban officials and amplified by Indian media claiming that Afghan forces had shot down a Pakistani fighter jet in Nangarhar and captured its pilot.
Videos were seen circulating on social media platforms, including X.
JUST IN 🇵🇰 🚨
Afghan forces have shot down another Pakistani regime fighter jet in Nangarhar Province today, marking the second aircraft brought down. pic.twitter.com/RlKLLucZBj— S Haidar Hashmi (@sHaidarHashmi) February 28, 2026
Pakistani security forces have 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 unprovoked cross-border aggression.
The development comes as the military said Pakistan has “effectively repulsed” Afghan Taliban insurgents at 53 locations along the border, inflicting heavy losses while exercising restraint to avoid civilian harm.
The information ministry said it exposed the false Afghan and Indian media propaganda about the alleged capture of a Pakistani pilot.
The ministry emphasised that all Pakistan Air Force aircraft are accounted for, with no losses reported, and all pilots are safe. In a statement, the government said there was no official confirmation from authorities of any aircraft loss and no independent international media outlet, defence monitoring agency, or satellite intelligence source had verified the claim.
No evidence of aircraft loss
The narrative relied solely on statements from Afghan officials and selective media amplification.
“There is no visual proof of crash debris, wreckage site or captured pilot,” the ministry said, adding that no geolocated imagery or satellite evidence supports the claim. It noted that in modern conflict environments, verified aircraft crashes are typically documented quickly — something that has not occurred in this case. The ministry further said videos circulating on social media as alleged evidence of the jet crash were old or unrelated clips.
According to the statement, some of the viral footage was from an unrelated panic situation in Afghanistan and had been recycled to fit the false narrative.
Image linked to unrelated incident
A misleading image shared by TOLO News, saying the photo of a fallen aircraft was not from Pakistan.
“The image corresponds to a Russian aircraft incident in Turkey in 2021,” the statement said, calling the reuse of unrelated foreign crash imagery a deliberate attempt to construct a false narrative. The ministry said that over the past two days, hundreds of fake or misleading videos linked to what it described as an India-Afghan propaganda ecosystem had been debunked.
Read: Afghan Taliban predicament and way out
It added that the jet downing claim fits the same pattern of coordinated disinformation and that credible defence analysts confirm Afghan forces do not have the operational capability or air defence systems to bring down modern Pakistani fighter jets in the claimed manner.
Verdict and advisory
The government concluded that the claim of a Pakistani fighter jet being shot down in Nangarhar and the pilot captured is false, with no verified aircraft loss or evidence of any pilot in custody. The public is advised not to rely on unverified battlefield claims circulated through partisan or hostile outlets 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 may be part of coordinated disinformation campaigns.
