Struck the biggest training camp of JeM, says India : No causality, claims Pakistan

New Delhi/Islamabad, 27 Feb 2019 [Fik/News Sources]: Twelve days after a JeM suicide bomber killed 40 CRPF troopers, India on early Tuesday struck the Jaish-e-Mohammed’s (JeM) biggest training camp at Balakot killing “a very large number” of terrorists and their trainers,  Indian foreign secretary Vijay K. Gokhale told the media.

While the Pakistani military claimed the area hit by India was close to the Line of Control (LoC), Reuters described Balakot as a town in a remote valley in Pakistan’s Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province. There is also Balakote — as different from Balakot — in the Pakistani-administered Kashmir.

Pakistan admitted that the IAF planes struck Balakot but claimed that they returned when it scrambled its war planes and that there were no losses on the ground.

Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi said the Indian jets were forced to return “owing to the timely response of the Pakistan Air Force” and warned that Islamabad has “the right to self-defence and (give) a befitting response”.

Indian aircrafts intruded from Muzafarabad sector. Facing timely and effective response from Pakistan Air Force released payload in haste while escaping which fell near Balakot. No casualties or damage, said Pakistan Army spokesperson Major General Asif Ghafoor.

He said earlier that the Indian intrusion in Muzaffarabad sector happened within “AJK” (Azad Jammu Kashmir), 3-4 miles from the LoC that divides Kashmir between the two countries.With agencies inputs