India bombed the largest Jaish-e-Mohammed terror camp in Pakistan’s Balakot in the early hours of Tuesday, 26 February, in a response to the Pulwama terror attack which left 40 CRPF jawans dead on 14 February.
I’m Vishnu Gopinath and on this edition of the Big Story podcast, we’ll tell you everything we know about India’s attack on the Pakistan-based terror group.
Around 5:30 am the Pakistan Army’s Major General Asif Ghafoor put out a statement on Twitter that said Indian aircraft crossed the Line of Control and intruded into Muzaffarabad sector in Pakistan Occupied Kashmir.
In a press briefing at 11:30 am, India’s Foreign Secretary Vijay Gokhale said India bombed JeM’s terror camp in Balakot as a pre-emptive strike, because India had credible intelligence that Jaish-e-Mohammed was planning and training terrorists to carry out more suicide attacks in India. Listen to the podcast for the full story:
What We Know So Far
Foreign Secretary Vijay Gokhale added:
“Credible intelligence told us there were more attacks being planned in India by JeM. A preemptive strike was conducted to avoid this. India struck the biggest training camp of the JeM in Balakot. In this operation a very large number of JeM terrorists, senior commanders, trainers and groups of jihadis being trained were eliminated.”Vijay Gokhale, Foreign Secretary
Gokhale added that the facility was headed by Maulana Yousuf Azhar AKA Ustad Ghouri, the brother-in-law of JeM head, Masood Azhar.
Masood Azhar is the man believed to be behind the 2001 attacks on the Indian Parliament, the 26/11 attacks of 2008 in Mumbai, the 2016 attack in Pathankot.
What else do we know, based on source-based information and media reports?
- There were three strikes – one in Balakot, 24 kilometers north of Muzaffarabad, between 3:45 and 3:53 am
- The second at Muzaffarabad between 3:48 and 3:55 am
- The third at Chakoti between 3:58 and 4:04 am
- 12 Mirage 2000 jets dropped bombs carrying a payload of at least a thousand kilograms. The JeM terror training facilities and control rooms were destroyed in the attack. The Alpha-3 Control rooms of the Jaish were destroyed by the IAF. Alpha 3 is a fixed communication centre for terror outfits in PoK.
- Once terrorists enter Indian territory, Alpha-3 guides, directs and controls their operations through a prefixed frequency on ICOM handsets. Whenever required Alpha-3 arranges tactical and material support through previously identified contacts.
- The second camp, the Aksa camp near Muzaffarabad conducts a 21-day Daura-e-Aam training course and the Tabook Camp near Muzaffarabad conducts 30 days Daura-e-Khas training course for the LeT terrorists after clearing Daura-e-Aam.
- India said that the IAF and defence systems have been put on high alert along the international border to respond to any possible action from Pakistan.
“The Indian government is firmly and resolutely committed to take all measures to fight terrorism. Thus this non-military preemptive action was specifically targeted at the Jaish-e-Mohammed Camp.”Vijay Gokhale, Foreign Secretary
Listen to the podcast for the complete story.
We’ll be putting out another podcast about what to expect next in this story, soon. So stay tuned for an update.
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