National

India may release Balakot image evidence

Pratidin Bureau

India may release evidence of Balakot strike as Opposition and World media are questioning the authenticity of the same although the BJP launched ballistic attack n those questioning the IAF as unpatriotic, helping the cause of Pakistan.

The Government has two imagery sources which will likely establish that the Spice 2000 glide bombs hit five separate structures along a ridge-line to the west of the town of Bisian near Balakot in Pakistan's Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.

According to defence sources, India used Israeli made Spice 2000 glide bombs to hit the targets in Pakistan's Balakot on Tuesday.  The Spice 2000 has been described as a "decapitating weapon", one designed to take out enemy leadership through precise strikes.

The  Indian Air Force Mirage 2000s made a "shallow incursion" across the line of control to reach an optimal launch point, where on board systems electronically permitted the release of the Spice 2000 glide bombs.

However analysis of commercially available satellite imagery by the International Cyber Policy Centre in Australia has questioned the government's claim that the strikes. According to Nathan Ruser, the author of the report, "Satellite imagery, acquired by Planet Labs Inc. on the morning of February 27 and accessed by ASPI" calls the government of India's claim "into question".

"No evidence of damage to the facility or nearby areas is visible on the images," the report says. Mr Ruser also mentions that local media have published "multiple small craters in the vicinity" indicating that the IAF missed its targets.

Earlier on Sunday, in an article in The Print, the  journalist Taha Siddiqui has reported the emergence of an audio recording on February 28, two days after the strikes, at an event of the Jaish-e-Mohammed in Peshawar. The group "goes on to acknowledge that Indian forces did carry out an airstrike and dropped bombs on their markaz (centre) in Balakot where he claims students were learning about the duty of jihad." The Jaish claims no one died in the attacks.

Francesca Marino, an independent journalist, who has reported extensively in Pakistan, has reported that "eyewitnesses present at the site of India's 26 February bomb strikes against a Jaish-e-Muhammad base say they saw up to 35 bodies being transported out of the site by ambulance hours after the attack."

In view of this contradictory positions, the Government may release the imagery evidences they have.

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