Pakistan Defence Minister Khawaja Asif has backed cricketer Haris Rauf over the controversial '6-0' gesture he made during the Asia Cup cricket match with India on Sunday.
Fast bowler Rauf and Indian opening batsmen Abhishek Sharma and Shubman Gill had a spat during the match when the Pak player made the gesture that many believe refers to Islamabad's claims of having shot down six Indian fighter jets, without reply, during Operation Sindoor.
Resharing an X post by Ayab Ahmed, a columnist for Pak publication Daily Times, Mr Asif said in Urdu, "Haris Rauf is treating them right. Keep it up. Cricket matches keep happening... but 6-0 will not be forgotten by India until the Judgement Day, and the world will remember it too."
Ahmed also shared a second video that showed Rauf mimicking planes being shot down. "Haris Rauf bringing Bharat back to its senses!" he said, adding the Pak flag and a grinning emoji.
Pak's claim of having shot down six Indian fighter jets have not been verified to date.
The Pak government has offered no evidence beyond its statement.
India's Air Force chief, AP Singh, said in August it was Pak that lost six military aircraft.
Air Chief Marshal Singh said five Pak fighter jets and a 'large aircraft', potentially a surveillance plane, were shot down. The latter was neutralised at a range of 300km and represented the "largest ever recorded surface-to-air kill", he said at an event in Bengaluru.
He did not mention the type of fighter jets but said India's airstrikes also hit a surveillance plane and 'a few United States-made F-16' fighters parked at two air bases in southeastern Pak.
India caused so much damage Pakistan realised they would suffer more losses if the conflict continued, the Air Chief Marshal said, adding, this prompted them to ask for a ceasefire.
In a post on X, Pakistan's defence minister accused India of dishonesty.
"If the truth is in question, let both sides open their aircraft inventories to independent verification - though we suspect this would lay bare the reality India seeks to obscure," he said.
"Such comical narratives, crafted for domestic political expediency, increase the grave risks of strategic miscalculation in a nuclearised environment."
India and Pakistan waged a nearly 100-hour military conflict, the first since the 1971 war, in early May. This was after Pak retaliated to airstrikes by India targeting nine terror camps in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir, in response to the Pahalgam terror attack.
India has said terrorists sponsored and backed by Pak - from The Resistance Front, an offshoot of the banned Lashkar-e-Taiba - carried out the attack that killed 26 people, mostly civilians.
