Balakot strike killed 130-170 JeM cadres, 45 being treated: Report

TIL Desk/World/New Delhi/ Up to 170 Jaish-e-Mohammed terrorists were killed in the airstrike conducted by the Indian Air Force in Pakistan’s Balakot, a foreign journalist has reported.

The pre-dawn airstrike was carried out by the Indian Air Force on February 26, days after the Pulwama terror attack. According to a report by Italian journalist Francesca Marino, the airstrike on a Jaish-e-Mohammed training camp in Balakot led to the death of 130-170 JeM recruits.

The journalist accused Pakistan of lying as the country has maintained that the Indian Air Force airstrike did not lead to any damage or casualties.

“Despite Pakistan’s efforts to deceive the world on the Indian airstrikes on the Jaish-e-Muhammad camp, small details of what happened in Balakot in the wee hours of February 26 and thereafter have kept trickling in from my source,” Italian journalist Francesca Marino wrote in her report.

Marino further wrote that a Pakistani army unit from Shinkiari base camp arrived at the location of the strike on February 26 around 6 am, just two-and-a-half hours after IAF successfully bombed the terror camp.