What happened at Balakot: Satellite imagery, Jaish audio and an Italian's narrative 

Spice-2000 bombs, described as a "decapitating weapon", are designed to penetrate enemy buildings, bunkers or makeshift shelters, before exploding inside at the point of contact.
Pakistani reporters and troops visit the site of an Indian airstrike in Jaba, near Balakot, Pakistan, Tuesday, Feb. 26, 2019. | AP
Pakistani reporters and troops visit the site of an Indian airstrike in Jaba, near Balakot, Pakistan, Tuesday, Feb. 26, 2019. | AP

Despite conducting air strikes against terror outfit Jaish-e-Mohammed at Balakot in the early hours of 26th February, the Modi government hasn't come out with any information on the number of casualties or the extent of damage caused by the mission undertaken by the IAF's Mirage-2000 jets.

IAF chief BS Dhanoa on Monday declined to comment on the death toll, saying the Air Force only sees if a target has been hit or not.

On Friday, during the security forces' joint briefing in Delhi, IAF Air Vice Marshal RGK Kapoor had said there was "fairly credible evidence" to prove that the Jaish camps were hit. 

"The weapons hit the intended target and they caused damage that was intended. However, it will be premature to estimate the number of casualties we have been able to inflict on those camps and the number of those killed," Kapoor said. 

The Air Chief's statement comes after West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee demanded information on how many terrorists were killed. Both PM Modi and Finance Minister Arun Jaitley had accused the opposition of speaking against the country's interests and demoralizing the security forces.

While the Air Chief refused to speculate, sources told NDTV that satellite images of the air strikes, treated as highly confidential by government officials, are likely to reveal the impact of the Israeli Spice-2000 glide bombs used by the Mirage-2000 fighters during the mission.

The satellite imagery is likely to reveal that the bombs hit five separate structures along a ridge-line to the west of the town of Bisian near Balakot.

Spice-2000 bombs, described as a "decapitating weapon", are designed to penetrate enemy buildings, bunkers or makeshift shelters, before exploding inside at the point of contact.

The sources also said that the entire structure may not have been destroyed in the aerial raid.

How the attack happened

The flight path which the aircraft used started from Gwalior and reached Kashmir before the bombs were offloaded at the JeM camp. 

Balakot is in Mansehra District of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province of Pakistan and is about 60 kilometres from the LoC. 

In order to reach the target as early as 2:55 am on 26th February, the Mirages, armed with Crystal Maze Mk2 and Spice-2000 glide bombs, took off from the Gwalior airbase.

The jets flew over Hindon in Uttar Pradesh, passed from Sirsa in Haryana, crossed Himachal Pradesh and entered Jammu and Kashmir. From there, they took a U-turn and entered PoK in alignment with the target. They followed an air path deep inside Indian territory to remain away from the Pakistani radars.

The aircraft then reached an optimal launch point just across the LoC, from where onboard systems electronically permitted the release of the Spice-2000 glide bombs, guided by the laser. However, one jet returned without launching its weapon because the onboard computer did not clear the bomb's release.

The glide bombs coasted dozens of kilometres following pre-fed GPS coordinates and hit the targets.  

During the whole operation, IAF's own Airborne Early Warning and Control System (AEW&CS) system Netra and Israel-configured Phalcons were in Indian airspace, keeping a watch on Pakistan’s reaction in order to warn the attacking aircraft to take retaliatory action if required.

Also, Multirole Aircraft SU-30 MKIs were flying on the Indian side to provide support to Mirages, if needed, while long-range UAV Herons were airborne for monitoring purposes.

Australian thinktank questions government's claim

Earlier, Australia's International Cyber Policy Centre questioned the government's claim that the strikes were successful after analysing commercially available satellite imagery.

Nathan Ruser, the author of the report, 'Satellite imagery, acquired by Planet Labs Inc. on the morning of February 27 and accessed by ASPI', said, "No evidence of damage to the facility or nearby areas is visible on the images." 

He also mentioned that Pakistani media had reported "multiple small craters in the vicinity", indicating that the fighter jets missed their targets.

Jaish admitted it was attacked: Pak journalist

Award-winning Pakistani journalist Taha Siddiqui though reported in an article in The Print that the Jaish had admitted to being attacked in a February 28 audio clip, two days after the Balakot air strikes.

The clip emerged at a Jaish-e-Mohammed event in Peshawar, where the terror group acknowledged that India did carry out an airstrike and dropped bombs on their markaz (centre) in Balakot where students were learning about the duty of jihad.

However, the terror group claimed there were no casualties in the attack.

40-50 deaths in the air strike: Scribe

Italian journalist Francesca Marino had told WION that 40 to 50 people were killed in the IAF strike.

The scribe quoted a source to validate her claims and also said that there were 35 to 40 wounded. 

Marino said that ambulances arrived at the site after the air strikes. While the medical staff's cellphones were taken away, at least 35 bodies were removed from the spot.

The journalist also added that the dead included 12 young Jaish trainees. 

A retired Pakistani Army colonel and another defence official were killed too, she said.

(With ENS Inputs)

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