Tag: iaf airstrike

Pak Opposition MP Says Abhinandan Was Released As Army Chief Feared India’s Attack

Sardar Ayaz Sadiq said the Pakistan Army chief’s “legs were shaking” when foreign minister S.M. Qureshi said India would attack if the IAF Wing Commander wasn’t released.

New Delhi: It was a day when remarks made by Pakistani leaders on the 2019 Pulwama attack and its aftermath – both in opposition and in government – came to dominate headlines, as they tried to score political points.

First, a top opposition leader stated that Pakistan Army chief General Qamar Javed Bajwa was perspiring and his “legs were shaking” as foreign minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi said during a meeting that if Indian Air Force Wing Commander Abhinandan Varthaman was not released, India would attack Pakistan.

Tensions between India and Pakistan escalated in the aftermath of the Pulwama terrorist attack which killed 40 CRPF troopers. While India conducted an air raid on terrorist camps in Balakot on Pakistan’s side on February 26, the Pakistan Air Force made incursions into Indian airspace on the next day. In a dogfight that ensued, Wing Commander Varthaman was into custody after his MiG-21 Bison jet was shot down. The IAF officer also took down a PAF F-16 jet.

Recalling the tension in Islamabad after India bombed a terror training camp in Pakistan’s Balakot on February 26, Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) leader Sardar Ayaz Sadiq criticised the Imran Khan government over its response, saying that the opposition has supported the government on every issue, including Kashmir and Varthaman, but it will no longer be appropriate to provide any further support, Dunya News reported on Wednesday.

Sadiq, who was the speaker of the National Assembly during the PML-N government, made the statement earlier on Wednesday in parliament that foreign minister Qureshi had said in an important meeting that if Varthaman was not released, India would attack Pakistan at 9 pm that night and for “God’s sake we should let him go”.

He was released on the night of March 1.

Sadiq further claimed that the foreign minister had said this in a meeting between parliamentary leaders, including those of Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) and PML-N, and Army chief General Bajwa whose “legs were shaking and he was perspiring”.

The leader did not mention the date of the meeting nor if he was also part of it.

The developments came after minister for communication Murad Saeed moved a government-sponsored resolution condemning the speeches of the leaders of the Pakistan Democratic Movement, a grouping of opposition parties. Saeed promoted these speeches promote the “narrative of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his security adviser Ajit Doval” at a public meeting, according to Pakistani newspaper The News. “You will continue to promote India’s narrative if you do not get NRO and I make it clear that these corrupt people will not get NRO,” Saeed said, according to the report. The NRO is a controversial ordinance that was issued by former president Pervez Musharraf granting amnesty to politicians and bureaucrats who were accused of corruption.

After his statements went viral on social media, Sadiq claimed that his words were being “misquoted and misreported”.

The Director General of Inter-Service Public Relations, Major General Babar Iftikhar even held a press conference on Thursday to “correct the record” regarding the Balakot airstrikes, Dawn reported.

“A statement was given yesterday which tried to distort the history of issues associated with national security,” he said, not taking any names.

Stating that it was “extremely disappointing and misleading” to link the Indian air force officer’s release as government weakness, he added, “This is in fact equivalent to making controversial the Pakistani nation’s clear supremacy and victory over India, and I think this is not acceptable to any Pakistani.”

He also stated that it gave handle to the Indian media to “take advantage” in the information domain.

“This same narrative is being used to minimise India’s defeat and loss,” stated. “In these conditions, when enemy forces have imposed a hybrid war on Pakistan, we will all have to move forward with great responsibility.”

Meanwhile, Pakistan’s science and technology minister Fawad Chaudhry made a seeming faux pas when his words were interpreted as a claim for Pulwama terror attack.

“Humne Hindustan ko ghus ke maara (We hit India in their home). Our success in Pulwama, is a success of the people under the leadership of Imran Khan. You and we are all part of that success,” minister Fawad Chaudhury said in the national assembly, NDTV reported.

When there was an uproar in the assembly, he rephrased, “Pulwama ke waqiyeh ke baad, jab humne India ko ghus ke maara (When we hit India in their home after the incident at Pulwama)”.

He further clarified in a tweet that he was only referring to Pakistan’s counter air strike in Indian territory.

This report updated with related comments of Pakistan DG ISPR and the minister for science and technology.

Pakistan Has ‘Reactivated’ Balakot Terror Camp, Says Army Chief

General Bipin Rawat added that 500 terrorists were allegedly waiting to infiltrate India.

Chennai: Army Chief General Bipin Rawat on Monday said Pakistan has reactivated Balakot very recently and about 500 “infiltrators” were waiting to illegally enter India.

“Balakot has been reactivated by Pakistan very recently. That shows that Balakot has been affected. It had been damaged and destroyed. And that is why people have got away from there and now it has been reactivated,” he told reporters at the Officers Training Academy in Chennai.

He then said around “500 infiltrators were waiting to infiltrate into the country.” He added that “…some action had been taken by Indian Air Force and now they have got the people back there.”

The Indian Air Force had carried out an air strike at what it said were terror camps at Balakot in retaliation to the February terror attack on CRPF personnel in Pulwama.

Modi is All Theatre, and the Congress is Making It Easier for Him to Pull Off His Act

This is not the first time Modi has tried to turn mass death into political advantage. He used the Godhra tragedy and the massacres which followed to advance the Gujarat election, win it, and remain CM for the next 12 years.

Prime Minister Modi has convinced most of the political class that he has turned the tragedy at Pulwama into a great military and diplomatic victory against Pakistan. As a result, many of those who are in politics only to line their pockets are seriously considering jumping on to the BJP boat even at this late hour. Do they not realise that everything Modi has done since February 14 is pure theatre – whose only purpose is to somehow win an election he was destined to lose because of the amateurish performance of his government, its scant respect for the rule of law and the coming together of the opposition?

In 2014, the BJP came to power because its vote share jumped 13 percentage points from 18% to 31%. This happened because a large part of the electorate, which had seen growth slacken sharply in 2011, believed his grandiose promise to bring back “acche din”. i.e revive economic growth, and create millions of jobs. Instead, all he has created in the past five years is a factory for the suppression or falsification of economic data.

What he has not been able to suppress or misrepresent is the near-complete absence of new jobs, the loss of 11 million jobs in industry, and further millions in construction, and the rise of the totally unemployed, to 6.2% of the workforce – the highest level in 45 years.

The spreading disillusionment had already been reflected in a string of defeats in recent assembly elections and bye-elections, Modi knew that the BJP could not possibly win on its own, so he turned to that “last refuge of the scoundrel”, patriotism. Pulwama gave him the opportunity he was looking for and he has taken full advantage of it – with a ruthlessness that is strongly reminiscent of his opportunism after the Gujarat riots of 2002.

Beating the war drums

The irony, which the big media won’t focus attention on, is that the government had received no fewer than three warnings from the Intelligence Bureau and a more detailed one from the Kashmir police warning of the threat of an imminent attack. The golden rule in intelligence analysis all over the world is that for a piece of information to be taken seriously it must be obtained from two independent sources. The pre-Pulwama warning passed the test.

The CRPF brass, presumably, took the threats seriously, and asked for its jawans to be transported by air instead of sending them by road. It may have also suggested this because heavy snowfall had forced a bunching up of two convoys and was certain to slow their movement to a crawl. But the fact remains that it made the request, and the request was denied.

Who had the power to deny such a request? In such an important matter, it is unlikely that the Ministry of Home Affairs would have declined on its own. What is more, had it actually done so, the air would have been full of recrimination and denials in the days that followed. But a full month later, there has been only silence. So it is beyond reasonable doubt that the request was denied by the PMO. And that means Modi. Why he would do that, only knows.

This is not the first time Modi has tried to turn mass death into political advantage. Modi was able to use the Godhra fire tragedy and the orchestrated massacres which followed to advance the Gujarat elections by four months, win it and remain the chief minister of Gujarat for the next 12 years. It would have been against his nature not to seize the ‘opportunity’ that the death of CRPF jawans would give him.

Everything that has happened since then has been excellently choreographed theatre. First, Modi promised a ‘surgical strike ‘ in retaliation. That took place 12 days later on February 26. Within hours of the IAF attack on Balakot in Pakistan, which the Indian foreign secretary said had wiped out a key Jaish-e-Mohammad training camp, BJP ministers put out the claim that 300 to 400 terrorists had been killed. Since then, satellite imagery and explosive analysis suggests that the madrassa at Balakot is not only standing, but might have suffered very little damage, and that any casualties would have been far fewer than the political claims being bandied about. The air force itself said it would be “premature” to say how many people had been killed in the airstrike.

All for show

Satellite imagery apart, the most credible evidence has come over the phone from what a student at the madrassa told Nirupama Subramaniam, the highly respected journalist who used to be correspondent of The Hindu in Islamabad and is now with the Indian Express. He said that a ‘huge’ bomb had fallen close to the madrassa, after which the army had hastily evacuated the students to safe locations elsewhere.

But one does not have to choose between conflicting second hand reports and satellite analysis to arrive at this conclusion.  The clinching proof is not even Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan’s assertion that there had been no casualties, but in where he made it. For this was in Pakistan’s National Assembly. Since Balakot is  in Khyber-Pukhtunkhwa,  is it credible that an MNA from the area would not have stood up, challenged his statement, named some of the dead and accused him of being a coward who did not want to confront India? No elected prime minister can take such a risk, and that is doubly so in Pakistan.

So if no one was killed, was it because the Indian Air Force is so monumentally inept that it missed a stationary target ­– a large complex – with not one but four precision-guided bombs? Since this idea strains credibility to the extreme, only one explanation remains: that the attacks were intended to miss.

This is the only hypothesis that explains two other anomalies: the first is US President Donald Trump’s curious statement a day earlier that he believed India would launch a reprisal attack and he would ‘understand’ if it did. The second is the care the Pakistan Air Force took not to cross the LoC in its retaliatory strike, and to attack only uninhabited sites ‘in order to show the PAF’s capability’. It is not beyond the realms of possibility that the US helped to orchestrate the two reactions in order to ensure that the conflict did not spill over into war.

Masood Azhar listing fiasco

From Modi’s point of view, therefore, the entire operation has been a monumental success. But for the nation, it is an unmitigated disaster. Yet, sceptics may ask, does one swallow a summer make?  No, but the air strike was only the last of several other swallows. Another is the hue and cry that Modi has made over the declaration of Masood Azhar as an international terrorist. Modi tried to do this before the UN Security Council met on Pulwama, but failed. In fact, the UNSC resolution did not even condemn the Jaish-e Mohammad directly, but only acknowledged that it had claimed responsibility. Modi brought the listing matter up again after the tit-for-tat airstrikes and, predictably, China again vetoed it.

Azhar richly deserves to be both named and sanctioned, and the Chinese refusal is a blatantly immoral act born out of the basest form of realpolitik. But how much importance should India attach to a purely symbolic declaration that will change absolutely nothing on the ground? For Masood Azhar has shown no desire to travel abroad since his return to Pakistan in 2000. So the ban means nothing to him, or to Islamabad. What will India gain from such a declaration? The answer is ‘nothing’. But Modi’s self image as a  lohpurush would gain a great deal. That is what he has been willing to endanger India’s relations with its most powerful neighbour for. The brinkmanship this involves is in many ways even more irresponsible than what he has shown over Pulwama.

Congress is at sea

What would have happened if the IAF’s bombs had actually killed 300 students inside the madrasa, whether he was training to be a jihadi, or was simply the son of a poor man who could not afford to pay the fees for a regular school? Would Pakistan then have responded with four attacks on vacant land in POK? And if it had done more, how long would it have been before the conflict escalated? This is the kind of risk that Modi was willing to run in his ruthless campaign to get re-elected, yet the Congress is unable to point this out to the people.

Today, the only sure way to prevent the Sangh parivar from returning to power is for the Congress to maintain a solid front with the opposition and establish a commonly agreed set of criteria for the allocation of seats among alliance partners. In the Congress, the main opposition to this common-sense strategy is coming from the local cadres whose capacity to raise money on the pretext of meeting election expenses and promising favours to donors in return, will vanish the moment their constituency is given to another party. This thinking is threatening to create three-cornered contests in UP, Delhi, MP, Bihar and other states, which could end by bringing the BJP back to power.

The only person who can overturn this suicidal strategy is Rahul Gandhi. It is time he brought his party back under his control. If the Congress is exposed as having only 5% of the vote in Delhi, and 8-10% in Uttar Pradesh, and is responsible for the failure of the mahagatbandhan, this will not only end the hold of the Nehru family over the party but also destroy its cadres’ standing in their constituencies.

Reuters Says Satellite Images Show Madrassa Buildings Still Standing in Balakot

A satellite image from March 4 is virtually unchanged from an April 2018 satellite photo of the facility.

New Delhi/Singapore: High-resolution satellite images reviewed by Reuters show that a religious school run by Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) in northeastern Pakistan appears to be still standing days after India claimed its warplanes had hit the Islamist group’s training camp on the site and killed a large number of militants.

The images produced by Planet Labs Inc, a San Francisco-based private satellite operator, show at least six buildings on the madrassa site on March 4, six days after the airstrike.

Until now, no high-resolution satellite images were publicly available. But the images from Planet Labs, which show details as small as 72 cm (28 inches), offer a clearer look at the structures the Indian government said it attacked.

The image is virtually unchanged from an April 2018 satellite photo of the facility. There are no discernible holes in the roofs of buildings, no signs of scorching, blown-out walls, displaced trees around the madrassa or other signs of an aerial attack.

The images cast further doubt on statements made over the last eight days by the Indian government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi that the raids, early on February 26, had hit all the intended targets at the madrassa site near Jaba village and the town of Balakot in Pakistan’s Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.

India’s foreign and defence ministries did not reply to emailed questions sent in the past few days seeking comment on what is shown in the satellite images and whether they undermine its official statements on the airstrikes.

Missed the target?

Jeffrey Lewis, director of the East Asia Nonproliferation Project at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies, who has 15 years’ experience in analysing satellite images of weapons sites and systems, confirmed that the high-resolution satellite picture showed the structures in question.

“The high-resolution images don’t show any evidence of bomb damage,” he said. Lewis viewed three other high-resolution Planet Labs pictures of the site taken within hours of the image provided to Reuters.

The Indian government has not publicly disclosed what weapons were used in the strike.

Government sources told Reuters last week that 12 Mirage 2000 jets carrying 1,000 kg (2,200 lbs) bombs carried out the attack. On Tuesday, a defence official said the aircraft used the 2,000-lb Israeli-made SPICE 2000 glide bomb in the strike.

Also read | Balakot Madrassa Students Heard Explosion, Kept in Military Safe House After Airstrike: Report

A warhead of that size is meant to destroy hardened targets such as concrete shelters.

Lewis and Dave Schmerler, a senior research associate at the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation studies who also analyses satellite images, said weapons that large would have caused obvious damage to the structures visible in the picture.

“If the strike had been successful, given the information we have about what kind of munitions were used, I would expect to see signs that the buildings had been damaged,” Lewis added. “I just don’t see that here.”

Pakistan has disputed India’s account, saying the operation was a failure that saw Indian jets, under pressure from Pakistani planes, drop their bombs on a largely empty hillside.

“There has been no damage to any infrastructure or human life as a result of Indian incursion,” Major General Asif Ghafoor, the director general of the Pakistan military’s press wing, in a statement to Reuters.

“This has been vindicated by both domestic and international media after visiting the site.”

Bomb craters

In two visits to the Balakot area in Pakistan by Reuters reporters last Tuesday and Thursday, and extensive interviews with people in the surrounding area, there was no evidence found of a destroyed camp or of anyone being killed.

Villagers said there had been a series of huge explosions but the bombs appeared to have landed among trees.

On the wooded slopes above Jaba, they pointed to four craters and some splintered pine trees, but noted little other impact from the blasts that jolted them awake about 3 am on February 26.

“It shook everything,” said Abdur Rasheed, a van driver who works in the area.

He said there weren’t any human casualties: “No one died. Only some pine trees died, they were cut down. A crow also died.”

Mohammad Saddique from Jaba Basic Health Unit and Zia Ul Haq, senior medical officer at Tehsil Headquarters Hospital in Balakot said they had seen no casualties.

Political fire

India must hold a general election by May, and pollsters say Modi and his Hindu nationalist party stand to benefit from his aggressive response to a suicide bomb attack that killed 40 Indian paramilitary police in the disputed Kashmir region on February 14.

India’s foreign secretary Vijay Gokhale said on the day of the strike that “a very large number of Jaish-e-Mohammad terrorists, trainers, senior commanders, and groups of jihadis who were being trained for Fidayeen action were eliminated” in the attack. Fidayeen is a term used to describe Islamist militants on suicide missions.

Another senior government official told reporters on the same day that about 300 militants had been killed. On Sunday the president of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Amit Shah, put the number killed at more than 250.

Also read | Four Reasons India Has Little Cause to Cheer the Balakot Airstrike and its Aftermath

The Indian government has not produced evidence that a camp was destroyed or that any militants were killed in the raid.

That has prompted some opposition politicians to push for more details.

“We want to know how many people actually died,” said Mamata Banerjee, the firebrand chief minister of West Bengal state, in a video published by her All India Trinamool Congress party in a tweet on Feb. 28. “Where did the bombs fall? Did they actually fall in the right place?”

Banerjee, who is seen as a potential prime ministerial candidate, said that she stood behind the Indian Armed Forces, but that they should be given a chance to speak the truth.

“We don’t want a war for political reasons, to win an election,” she said.

Modi has accused the opposition Congress party, and other opponents such as Banerjee, of helping India’s enemies by demanding evidence of the attacks.

“At a time when our army is engaged in crushing terrorism, inside the country and outside, there are some people within the country who are trying to break their morale, which is cheering our enemy,” Modi said at an election rally on Sunday.

(Reuters)

Balakot Madrassa Students Heard Explosion, Kept in Military Safe House After Airstrike: Report

Pakistani forces had been providing security cover to the madrassa for a week before the strike, the relative of a student has said.

New Delhi: Students at a Jaish-e-Mohammad seminary in Balakot – the target of the February 26 Indian Air Force airstrike – reportedly heard a loud noise in the middle of the night on that day, and were escorted to a safe house by Pakistan Army hours later.

The Indian Express has reportedly spoken to the relatives of one the boys who was in the madrassa that night, who said that the students were sent back to their respective homes after spending a few days in the safe house.

Pakistani forces had been providing security cover to the madrassa since a week before the strike, the relative said.

The Madrassa Taleem-ul-Quran is located on top of a ridge called Jabha Top.

The student told his family that early in the morning on February 26, while it was still dark and the students were still asleep, the woke up because of a “massive exploding” sound. “The sound was not far away, it was quite close,” Indian Express quoted the relative as saying.

Also read: Four Reasons India Has Little Cause to Cheer the Balakot Airstrike and its Aftermath

Not seeing anything amiss, the students thought they may have dreamt the sound and went back to sleep, the relative said. When they woke up later, soldiers were on the premises and escorting them out. They were taken to a safe house, where they stayed for “two or three” days.

“He said there were quite a lot of people at the madrassa but not all of them went to the safe house. It was him and some others of the same age group. He does not know what happened to the others or where the explosion took place,” Indian Express quoted the relative as saying.

The relative also said that because some photos of the madrassa had been leaked before, security forces had been guarding the area for a week before the airstrike.

Unanswered questions

The Indian Express report does not mention whether the student knew of any madrassa buildings being hit, or whether there was any commotion after the airstrikes.

More than ten days after the Balakot airstrikes, a lot is still unknown. While unidentified sources in the Indian government have been saying that more than 300 people were killed in the airstrike, Pakistan has said that there were no casualties.

Also read: Days After Airstrike, Questions Still Remain About the Indian, Pakistani Versions

The IAF chief has said the the air force does not count casualties. However, Bharatiya Janata Party president Amit Shah and party spokesperson Sambit Patra have been quoting casualty numbers ranging from 250 to 400.

Pakistan has refused to give access to the madrassa, making it impossible for the media or anyone else to independently verify the damage done. India has also refused to reveal satellite images.

Meanwhile, satellite imagery, as analysed by two different independent experts, indicates that the structures at the madrassa were unaffected and the airstrike missed it target. Indian authorities have not responded to these analyses.

Opposition Parties Accuse Amit Shah of Politicising Balakot Airstrikes

After the BJP president claimed more than 250 terrorists were killed in the strike, opposition leaders asked the government to provide exact figures.

New Delhi: After BJP president Amit Shah on Sunday claimed that “more than 250” terrorists were killed in the Balakot airstrike, opposition leaders have criticised him for trying to politicise the issue.

Shah was the first leader of the ruling party to give a figure of the number of people believed to have been killed in the airstrike. On Saturday, Union minister S.S. Ahluwalia stated the strike was intended to send a message that India is capable of hitting deep inside enemy lines and not to inflict “any human casualty”.

Shah, in Gujarat, said, “After Uri, our forces went into Pakistan and carried out surgical strikes. They avenged the death of our soldiers. After Pulwama, everyone thought there could be no surgical strikes, what will happen? But under (Prime Minister Narendra) Modi’s leadership, the government carried out an air strike after the 13th day and killed more than 250 terrorists.”

Also Read: Air Force Chief Says IAF Doesn’t Count Casualties, Govt Will Disclose Balakot Toll

He also lashed out at opposition leaders demanding proof of the number of people killed in the airstrikes. “If they cannot support the armed forces, they should at least learn to keep quiet,” he added.

The IAF’s chief B.S. Dhanoa on Monday clarified that the Air Force does not count human casualties. He said the bomb damage assessment conducter after a mission only calculates if the target was hit or not, he said.

“We can’t count how many people have died. That depends on how many people were there,” Dhanoa said, adding that it is for the government to provide details of the number of terrorists killed.

On Monday, the Congress criticised Shah for “politicising the air strikes”. Senior leader Manish Tewari accused the BJP of “milking” the air strikes for political gains.

Former finance minister P. Chidambaram said he was ready to believe the government’s claims. But if the Centre wanted the world to believe the impact of the airstrikes on terror camps in Pakistan, then the government should not “indulge in Opposition-bashing”. He questioned how the figure of 300-350 casualties is circulating despite the IAF Vice Air Marshal declining to comment on the number of casualties.

Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal also criticised Shah. On Monday, he said Shah took a stand contradictory to that of the armed forces over the number of terrorists killed the airstrikes.

“Amit Shah is saying that the armed forces are lying, 250 (terrorists) were killed. Amit Shah is calling the armed forces a liar. The country will not tolerate this under any circumstances,” Kejriwal tweeted in Hindi.

In another tweet, the Delhi chief minister said the whole country stands with the armed forces while the BJP stands against them.

“The armed forces cannot lie but the BJP is lying. The whole country stands with the armed forces but BJP stands against them,” Kejriwal said.

TMC’s spokesperson Derek O’Brien accused Shah and Modi of sending the soldiers to die without a plan. “Is your purpose only to win the election,” he asked.

He referred to Shah’s speech in Assam on February 17, where he said the sacrifices of the forces will not be in vain because the BJP is in power at the Centre. This, O’Brien said, reduced the armed forces to being “the private property of a political party”.

India-Pak Standoff: All Signs Suggest That New Delhi Wants To De-Escalate

Despite confirming that the Pakistani Air Force targeted Indian military establishments, India has not called it an act of war.

New Delhi: With tensions boiling over the past two days, India is now clearly signalling that it won’t take any further military steps for now.

India handing over a dossier on Jaish-e-Mohammad JeM to Pakistan on Wednesday night and the refusal to brand an attack on military targets as an ‘act of war’ are important markers that New Delhi wants to de-escalate the situation.

The dossier was handed over to the Pakistani deputy high commissioner along with the demarche on Pakistan incursions through airstrikes on Wednesday. As per the MEA’s press note handed out on Wednesday, the dossier contained “specific details of JeM’s complicity in Pulwama terror attack and the presence of JeM terror camps and its leadership in Pakistan”.

A day later, Indian sources explained that the dossier was provided in response to Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan’s repeated claims since February 14 that Islamabad is ready to conduct an investigation, if given evidence. The Pakistani leader also emphasised in his last address to the nation that India did not provide any information so far, despite several offers.

Also Read: Pakistan to Release IAF Wing Commander Abhinandan Varthaman Tomorrow

Sources asserted after India handed over the dossier, the ball was in Pakistan’s court.

As India earlier refused to share any information regarding the Pulwama attack with Pakistan, the move to hand over the dossier is a clear indicator that it does not want to escalate.

Before, India stated that sharing any “actionable intelligence” with Pakistan is futile, given the history of Islamabad’s lack of action after 26/11 and Pathankot attack. In a series of diplomatic briefing both in Delhi and in world capitals, foreign countries were also told the same line.

Sources said after Imran Khan’s speech on Wednesday, it is now time for him to walk the talk.

However, after handing over the dossier means, India will have to wait before checking if Pakistan will take any action – even if it considers that to be a futile wait.

Sources noted that India’s demand was for immediate, credible and verifiable action against terrorists, their proxies and dismantling of cross-border terror infrastructure. On Pakistan’s claim that Imran Khan wants to speak over the phone with Narendra Modi, sources said the onus is on Pakistan to create a conducive atmosphere.

Given Pakistan’s history, would India would accept any Pakistan action as credible? Sources said this discussion will only happen later.

Narendra Modi and Imran Khan. Illustration: The Wire

International resonance

India’s position seems to have some resonance internationally. German foreign minister Heiko Maas on Thursday called on both countries to exercise “utmost circumspection”. However, he also told Pakistan that “once evidence is furnished, that those responsible for the terrible attack in Kashmir are held to account and do not walk free”.

The press conference by the three armed forces at Raisina hill was also essentially another signboard that India will “not escalate”.

The Indian government’s first confirmation of the Pakistani airstrike – through a media statement by foreign secretary Vijay Gokhale on Wednesday afternoon – said Pakistan had targeted military installations. Today’s press briefing again underlined that military installations had been targeted, essentially to put a question mark on Pakistani claims.

Air Vice Marshall R.G.K. Kapoor said that at around 10 am on February 27, military radars detected a “large package” of Pakistani aircraft was approaching Indian territory at Jhangar. “They breached the Indian airspace at Rajauri in Sunderbani area,” he said. The Pakistani aircraft numbered over 20.

The senior Air Force officer said the Pakistani planes were intercepted by Indian fighter aircraft “which thwarted their plans”. “Although PAF bombs have fallen in Indian Army Formation compounds, however, they were unable to cause any damage to our Military Installations”.

He claimed that in the aerial combat, one F16 of the PAF was shot down by a MiG21 Bison. This Pakistani plane fell across the Line of Control in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir. According to sources, there is visual evidence of the plane falling down from the sky, but not of the debris on the ground.

Meanwhile, one MiG21 of the Indian Air Force was hit. The pilot, Wing Commander Abhinandan Varthaman, ejected safely, but his parachute drifted into POK. He was taken into custody by the Pakistani army.

The demarche, after the airstrikes, stated that Pakistan acted with aggression against India.

However, at the press conference, when asked if Pakistan’s targeting of Indian military installations amounted to an act of war, the senior air force officer side-stepped the question.

“There is no doubt that Pakistan has attempted to target our military installation. We thwarted them… That is the task of the Indian Air Force, which we have done swiftly and efficiently,” he said.

New Delhi’s message to the international community was that Pakistan is responsible for the escalation, not India. At the joint press conference, Indian army’s Major General Surinder Singh Bahal said there were numerous ceasefire violations at the border.

Also Read: Editorial: India and Pakistan Should De-Escalate Now

However, there were no further details on the damage or casualties caused by India’s airstrikes at Balakot in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. The Indian Air Force officer said the “desired damage” had been achieved.

That initially both the Pakistani army spokesperson and Imran Khan claimed that two Indian jets were downed is being cited by India as an example of Islamabad’s ‘disinformation game’.

Sources said this deliberate ‘disinformation’ has been brought to the attention of the international community, which should discredit Pakistani statements during the ongoing crisis.

During the press conference, the Indian Air Force displayed an advance medium-range air-to-air missile (AMRAAM) missile, which AVM Kapoor said is only carried by an F-16 jet. He added that parts of this missile “were recovered east of Rajouri”. The Pakistan army spokesperson had denied on Wednesday that any F-16 were involved in the airstrikes.

New Delhi’s insistence on demonstrating that an F-16 jet was involved maybe directed at Washington, since F-16 sales to Pakistan are made on the condition that they should be used only in counter-terror operation and not against India.

Military officials display an advance medium-range air-to-air missile (AMRAAM) missile. Credit: PTI

“War hysteria”

Sources claimed that Pakistan has been trying to create “war hysteria”, with statements that Indian missiles were ready to launch on Wednesday night and that the Indian navy was moving towards Karachi.

India’s message to the international community that it was not the party trying to escalate the situation was conveyed in the context of a slew of concerned statements. Countries around the world asked the South Asian neighbours to exercise restraint.

Earlier today, US president Donald Trump said in Vietnam there will be “reasonably attractive news” soon on the India-Pakistan front, indicating that Washington was involved in managing the crisis. Indian sources, however, stated that they were not aware of what Trump was specifically referring too.

The move by three permanent members, the US, UK and France, to list JeM chief Masood Azhar as a UNSC-designated global terrorist, has pleased India. Sources were, however, unaware if China will remove its three-year-old technical hold on the listing.

Sources also added that India was not taking any steps to stop people-to-people contacts, like closing airspace, pausing the Samjhauta Express or suspending talks on the Kartarpur pilgrim corridor initiative.

On Friday, Indian external affairs minister Sushma Swaraj has been invited for the first time to address the OIC plenary session as a ‘guest of honour’. Pakistan objected to India’s presence following the February 26 airstrikes.

The Indian external affairs minister is also scheduled to have a bilateral meeting with the UAE foreign minister Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan. Earlier today, UAE crown prince Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed bin Sultan Al-Nahyan spoke with the Indian and Pakistani prime ministers, urging them to prioritise dialogue and communication.