Published 20:30 IST, February 26th 2019
WATCH TO BELIEVE! "Our Air Force was ready but it was dark..." says Pakistan's clueless Defence Minister after terror camps are pummeled by Indian Air Force
In the aftermath of IAF's air strike on Tuesday morning in which 12 Mirage 2000s jets dropped 1000 kgs bombs on multiple Jaish launchpad destroying their training bases and killing over 245 terrorists in the Balakot district in the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province, a spooked Pakistan rejected India’s claim of the air strike.
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In the aftermath of IAF's air strike on Tuesday morning in which 12 Mirage 2000s jets dropped 1000 kgs bombs on multiple Jaish launchpad destroying their training bases and killing over 245 terrorists in the Balakot district in the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province, a spooked Pakistan not just rejected India’s claim of the air strike, but also their clueless Defence Minister and Foreign Minister statement embarrassing Imran Khan's 'Naya Pakistan'.
In a viral video, which appears to be Pak government's news briefing in Islamabad after India struck Pakistan, both Pak Minister for Defence Pervez Khattak and MEA Shah Mehmood Qureshi said that Pak Air forces were ready, as 12 IAF's Mirage 2000 jets entered in LoC and dropped bombs on JeM terror bases, but 'since it was dark they could assume the intensity of the attack'.
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In the video, Pak Defence Minister Pervez Khattak can be heard saying: "When the attack took place in the morning, they (IAF) came 4-5 km inside (LoC) and they dropped the bombs. Our air force was ready but because it was night time, the loss could not be assumed. So, they waited for that (to find the quantum of IAF air strike). Now we have received clear directions that if something like this happens in the future, we will respond to it.
To which MEA Shah Mahmood Qureshi added saying: "May I just add. The Pakistan Air Force was already air-bond. We were ready for all eventualities."
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WATCH THE VIDEO HERE:
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Earlier on Tuesday, a rattled Pakistan Army went on to allege that the IAF violated the LoC in Muzafarabad sector. Major General Asif Ghafoor, Director General of Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR), the media wing of the army, taking to Twitter wrote that "no casualties were reported".
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However, sources confirmed to Republic that over 300 terrorists who were undergoing training at Jaish-e-Mohammed, Lashkar-e-Toiba and Hizb-ul-Mujahideen terror camps at Balakote, Muzaffarabad and Chakothi in Pakistan were neutralised in IAF's air strike.
Furthermore, India's Foreign Secretary Vijay Gokhale addressed a press briefing wherein he had confirmed about IAF's air strike on the JeM training bases. He further also confirmed that one of the terror facilities in Balakot, which was struck down by IAF's Mirage 2000, was headed by Jaish-e-Mohammed chief Masood Azhar's brother-in-law Maulana Yusuf Azhar alias Ustad Ghouri.
"In an intelligence-led operation in the early hours of today, India struck the biggest training camp of JeM in Balakot. In this operation, a very large number of JeM terrorists, trainers, senior commanders and groups of jihadis who were being trained for fidayeen action were eliminated. This facility at Balakot was headed by MAULANA YUSUF AZHAR (alias USTAD GHOURI), the brother-in-law of MASOOD AZHAR, Chief of JeM," he had said.
18:25 IST, February 26th 2019