‘Significant damage’

Indian Air Force (IAF) has provided the government with radar and satellite images of air strikes on “intended targets” at the JeM terrorist training camp in Pakistan’s Balakot showing that the bombings caused “significant damage” to it, sources in the security establishment told PTI yesterday. This “evidence” comes after a report by a foreign news agency claimed that satellite images of the Jaish-e-Mohammad Madrasa located in Balakot showed that the camp was still without any damage and structure was still standing.

The central government on Sunday was provided with all the “evidence” about the February 26 IAF strike on the JeM terror camp; the evidence included radar and satellite imagery and showed that India’s S-2000 laser-guided munition struck the intended targets “causing significant internal damage”, sources have said. To recall, the S-2000 smart bombs pierces the targets and cause a blast from the inside, sources say.

The report also said that the IAF had gathered the satellite images of the JeM camp from independent sources post the strikes to evaluate the impact of the pre-dawn operation; those radar and satellite images have also been given to the government. The report by the foreign news agency had compared an April 2018 image of the JeM facility and the image taken on March 4, 2019 to show that the buildings were virtually unchanged.

Briefing reporters in the previous week, Foreign Secretary Vijay Gokhale had said that “a very large number of JeM terrorists, senior commanders, trainers and groups of jihadis who were being trained for fidayeen action were eliminated”, while the government sources estimate the number at 350 terrorists.