Indian Air Force (IAF) on February 26 carried out pre-dawn air strikes pounding Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM)’s biggest training camp at Balakote in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province of Pakistan, about 80 kilometers deep inside Pakistan from the Line of Control (LoC), killing over 350 terrorists including top ‘commanders’ of JeM, trainers and recruits, reports Daily Excelsior. According to the reports the militants were sleeping in ‘five-star’ facility equipped terror camp when the fighter jets pounded it with laser guided bombs weighing over 1000 kilograms.
According to sources, the terror camp, which had been established by JeM ‘chief’ Moulana Masood Azhar after his release in 1999 from Kot Bhalwal jail of Jammu following the Kandahar hijacking, was completely destroyed in the bombing by fighter jets-Mirage 2000 and Sukhoi. Masood Azhar’s brother-in-law Moulana Yusuf Azhar alias Gauri Ustaad and brother Ibrahim Azhar were inside the terror camp at the time of attack and were reportedly dead, sources said. Though there was no official confirmation on the number of the militants killed in Indian air raids in Pakistan, sources said over 350 terrorists of JeM including 25 ‘top commanders’ have been eliminated in the attack on Balakote camp in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. Besides top Jaish commanders, militants, a number of trainers, who generally comprised ex-servicemen of Pakistan army and under-training militants, were among those killed inside the camp. The camp, which was located on a hilltop forest, hit the militants and their trainers in their sleep, eliminating majority of those, who were present there. Going by intensity of the pounding of the camp by the IAF jets, there was no scope of anyone surviving there, sources said. At least 325 militants and 25 to 27 trainers were at the camp and all of them were killed, they added.
Some of the top militants reportedly killed in the attack included Moulana Yousuf Azhar alias Gauri Ustaad, brother-in-law of Masood Azhar and Incharge of the camp, Ibrahim Azhar, elder brother of Masood Azhar, who was also involved in Indian Airlines Flight-814 hijacking in Kandahar after which three terrorists including Moulana Masood Azhar were released from jails, Mufti Azhar Khan Kashmiri, head of ‘Kashmir Operations’, Maulana Ammar, head of ‘Afghan Operations’ and Maulana Talha Saif, brother of Masood Azhar and Incharge Fidayeen Squad. While about 200 to 250 militants used to stay in JeM’s Balakote camp, sources said, 100 to 150 others had recently been shifted there from terror camps running in Pakistan occupied Kashmir (PoK) by the Pakistan army and Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) besides the militant commanders as they feared that India might strike at the terror camps in PoK especially those located close to the LoC.
Later, describing the strikes as ‘pre-emptive’, Indian authorities said there had been very specific and credible inputs available with Indian Security Forces (SFs) and Intelligence agencies that fresh group of seven fidayeen (suicide squad) were being trained at the camp to be launched in Jammu and Kashmir for more suicide bombings like Pulwama attack. The fidayeen being trained for the attack have been neutralized inside the camp. It described the operation as “non-military” and “pre-emptive” saying no military or civilian installations were targeted inside Pakistan and it was only the terror camp of Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM), which was hit with accurate strike. Foreign Secretary Vijay Gokhale said that “intelligence-led operation” on the Pakistan-based terror group’s biggest training camp in Balakote became “absolutely necessary” as it was planning more suicide attacks in India.