Samikhsya Bureau
A controversy is building up around the air strike by Indian Air Force at a Jaish-e-Mohammed terror camp at Balakot in Pakistan.
After the air strike was carried out on February 26 as a response to the terror attack on a CRPF convoy in Kashmir that claimed the lives of 40 personnel, the Indian media said quoting “sources” that the strike eliminated more than 300 terrorists.
However, no reputed international media outlets corroborated the story. On the contrary, outlets like BBC, Reuters, The New York Times, The Washington Post and Al Jazeera questioned the death toll. Some of the even hinted that the targeted structures remained intact after the air strike.
On Saturday, Union minister for state S.S. Ahluwalia created a flutter in political circles by refuting the reports in India media that over 300 terrorists were killed by the air strike. He said the strike was only a warning to Pakistan. “Did Modi say 300 terrorists were killed?” Ahluwalia said at a meeting at Siliguri in West Bengal.
But the very next day, Bharatiya Janata Party president Amit Shah claimed in several election meetings in Gujarat that the air strike killed “more than 250 terrorists”.
Reacting to BJP president Amit Shah claiming that “more than 250” terrorists were killed in the Balakot air strike, Aam Aadmi party leadr and Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal on Monday asked if Amit Shah and BJP did not trust the army.
In a series of posts on the social media, Kejriwal said, “As per Amit Shah, is army lying? The army has clearly said that who is dead or not, or how many people have died (Balakot air strike), it cannot be said.”
Kejriwal said that Amit Shah’s statement suggested that the army is lying. “The army cannot lie, the BJP is lying. The entire nation is with the army, but BJP is against the army,” he said.
Congress leader and former Union minister Kapil Sibal said that Alhuwalia was saying no one was killed while Shah said 250 had been killed in the air strike. Who is lying Ahluwalia, a central minister, or Shah, a president of a political party, Sibal asked.
Amist the intense war of words between the political leaders over the death toll at Balakot, Air Chief Marshal B.S. Dhanoa said that the air strike achieved its target and Pakistani retaliation itself was ample proof about it.
“Of course, if we plan to hit the target, we hit the target….otherwise why he (Pakistan) would have responded. If we had dropped bombs in the jungle, there would be no need for them (Pakistan) to respond,” Air Chief Marshal Dhanoa told reporters on Monday in his first media interaction since the aerial strike.
However, on the question of how many terrorists have been killed, Air Chief Marshal said that statement will be made by the government. “The Air Force is not in a position to clarify how many people were inside the camp. We don’t count human casualties, we count what target has been hit or not hit,” he said.
As the central government has yet to come up with an official death toll of terrorists in the camp after the strike, the controversy is not going to die down soon.
