#JUSTIN: Afghan Forces Shoot Down Pakistani Fighter Jet in Jalalabad, Capture Pilot Alive
Afghan military and police say Pakistani fighter jet was shot down in Jalalabad's sixth district; pilot ejected and captured alive.
In a startling escalation of cross-border tensions between Afghanistan and Pakistan, Afghan military and police officials claimed on 28 February 2026 that a Pakistani fighter jet crashed in Jalalabad, with the pilot captured alive following the incident. Authorities said the aircraft was downed by Afghan forces amid ongoing hostilities along the two neighbours’ border, although Islamabad has rejected the claim as “totally untrue.”
According to provincial police spokesman Tayeb Hammad and military spokesman Wahidullah Mohammadi, the fighter jet was reportedly brought down in the sixth district of Jalalabad, the capital of eastern Nangarhar province. Local residents told reporters they heard the sound of a jet overhead followed by at least two explosions near the city’s airport before the aircraft fell from the sky. Afghan officials said the pilot parachuted and was subsequently taken into custody by security forces.
The Afghan statements come amid a sharp intensification of clashes between Afghan forces and Pakistani military units. Afghan officials assert that Pakistan had conducted air strikes on Kabul and Kandahar in recent days, prompting a border offensive by Afghan troops and escalating violence in multiple sectors. Islamabad’s military and information ministry did not immediately respond to requests for comment regarding the latest incident.
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However, the Government of Pakistan has strongly denied the claim that one of its jets was shot down or that a pilot was captured. A Pakistan foreign ministry spokesperson dismissed the reports as “baseless” and “totally untrue,” asserting that the armed forces had not lost any aircraft, and that circulating accounts were inaccurate. Independent confirmation of the aircraft’s status or the pilot’s capture remains unavailable.
The conflicting narratives underscore the dangerously opaque nature of the developing conflict, which has seen both sides accuse each other of initiating aggression. Recent exchanges of fire and air strikes along the Afghanistan–Pakistan border have heightened fears of a broader military confrontation, with civilian populations in border regions increasingly vulnerable to violence.
International observers and diplomats have urged restraint as the situation evolves, pointing to the potential for regional destabilization if hostilities continue to escalate. With both Kabul and Islamabad issuing divergent accounts of the same event, verification from neutral sources will be crucial to understanding the facts on the ground and preventing further miscalculations.
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