India made headlines yesterday after carrying out “surgical strikes” on militants across the Line of Control that divides the state of Jammu & Kashmir between India and Pakistan.
Days earlier insurgents had attacked a bus carrying 44 army personnel in Indian-administered Kashmir, killing 40 soldiers. Tensions spiked as India blamed Pakistan.
Supporters of the Indian government said the army’s strikes had taught Pakistan a long-awaited lesson – but Islamabad dismissed the reports as an “illusion”.
What did Indian troops do?
India carried out “non-military pre-emptive srike” against a terrorist camp on 26th February across the Line of Control that divides the state of Jammu & Kashmir between India and Pakistan.
The operation by the Indian Air Force (IAF) was aimed at a base of the Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM), the Masood Azhar-led group proscribed by the United Nations and operating out of Bahawalpur city of Pakistan’s Punjab province.
“India struck the biggest JeM terror camp in Balakot, run by Mazood Azhar’s brother-in-law,” Indian foreign secretary Vijay Gokhale said addressing the media.
The operation was in response to credible intelligence that the group was planning to carry out terror strikes across India, Gokhale added. It comes just days after a JeM suicide bomber detonated an improvised explosive device in Pulwama, Kashmir, leading to the death of over 40 Indian paramilitary personnel.
Gokhale emphasised the fact that the strike at the Balakot facility was “non-military” and had avoided civilian casualties, targeting the JeM’s biggest camp and killing a large number of JeM terrorists, trainers, senior commanders, and Jihadis.
The first reports of today’s air strike came from Pakistan when authorities there tweeted that Indian Air Force (IAF) fighter aircraft had crossed the LoC.
Indian Air Force violated Line of Control. Pakistan Air Force immediately scrambled. Indian aircrafts gone back. Details to follow.
— Maj Gen Asif Ghafoor (@OfficialDGISPR) 25 February 2019
UN says ‘no firing observed’
India’s already suspect ‘surgical strikes’ claims have been rendered completely bogus after Secretary General UN, Ban Ki-moon’s spokesperson Stephane Dujarric has also repudiated them.
In the daily press briefing, Dujarric said “The UN Military Observer Group in India and Pakistan (UNMOGIP) has not directly observed any firing across the LoC related to the latest incidents.”
When asked to explain how UNMOGIP can say it did not observe any firing even as India said it has conducted the surgical strikes, Dujarric repeated that UNMOGIP has not “directly observed” any of the firing.
“They are obviously aware of the reports of these presumed violations and are talking to the relevant concerned authorities,” he said.
The explicit refusal to confirm the Indian propagandist reports was met with great anguish and anger in India.
Eyewitnesses Accounts
According to a Reuters report, one person has been wounded. “Pakistani villagers in the area where Indian jets struck…heard four loud bangs in the early hours of Tuesday.” They have reported only one person was wounded by bomb shards, the report stated. The dateline for the report is Balakot.
The report quoted Mohammad Ajmal, a 25-year-old who visited the site, as saying:
“We saw trees fallen down and one house damaged and four craters where the bombs had fallen.”
This eyewitness interviewed by the BBC says he knws about houses being hit near his residence and someone he knows personally being injured. India claims it was a Jaish e Mohammad camp. No secret Pak has JeM camps. @OfficialDGISPR is once again misleading the public. Shameful. pic.twitter.com/HA5JgnStKa
— Taha Siddiqui (@TahaSSiddiqui) 26 February 2019
Another eyewitness who spoke to the BBC says that one person was injured. He adds that 4-5 houses were also damaged.
How did Pakistan respond?
Pakistan Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi on Tuesday, 26 February, said that Pakistan will respond to the air strikes conducted by the Indian Air Force across the LoC. He said there were no JeM camps in the area where India conducted the strikes and that the claims are India’s propaganda ahead of the general elections in the country.
Minister of Foreign Affairs Shah Mahmood Qureshi talks to Samaa News after the violation of LOC by Indian Air Force (26.02.19)@SMQureshiPTI
Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi warned India not to challenge Pakistan.
Pakistan is fully prepared to respond to any misadventure. pic.twitter.com/mobpNBTgtO— PTI (@PTIofficial) 26 February 2019
Qureshi also said that Pakistan will take international media to the site of the air strikes.
“Pakistan will take international media to the area of strikes, helicopters are being readied, right now weather is bad, will fly when weather permits,” he said.
Qureshi was addressing the Pakistan media along with the country’s Defence Minister Pervez Khattak.
Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan’s party Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) tweeted that India’s claim of targeting the terrorist camp near Balkot is “self-serving, reckless and fictitious.”