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New Delhi, Feb 26 (IANS): The pre-dawn attack air strike by Indian Air Force (IAF) on Jaish-e-Mohammed’s (JeM) biggest terror camp in Balakot in Pakistan’s Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province on early Tuesday involved over 200 hours of planning that began following intelligence inputs regarding a second suicide terror strike somewhere in India.
Highly-placed sources said that the government got the intelligence input just two days after the February 14 terror strike in Jammu and Kashmir’s Pulwama by JeM suicide bomber Adil Ahmad Dar in which 40 Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) troopers were killed and five suffered injuries.
The intelligence input warned of another suicide terror attack - which could be bigger than Pulwama - at any place across India, said the source. Soon after the input, a series of meetings were held among top government officials and ministers concerned, the chiefs of the Army, Navy and IAF and National Security Advisor (NSA) Ajit Doval to give befitting reply to the JeM terrorists.
The final decision to carry out an air strike on a Pakistan-based terror camp was taken in a meeting chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, with Home Minister Rajnath Singh, Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, Doval and IAF chief, Air Chief Marshal Birender Singh Dhanoa, present.
“The meeting finalized an air strike on the terror camps as the only option to take revenge for security personnel killed in Pulwama attack and give a big jolt to the JeM’s plan to carry out another strike in India. Over 200 hours of planning went into the air strike in which every aspect was taken care of,” said the source.
It was decided that the revenge would be taken on the 13th day of Pulwama attack to pay “best homage” to the slain CRPF personnel who lost their lives after a bus, part of a 78-vehicle convoy, they were travelling in was blown up by Adil’s car packed with over 200 kg of explosives on the Jammu-Srinagar highway, said the source.
Another source said that 16 Sukhoi fighter jets were backing over 12 Mirage 2000 fighter jets that pounded multiple terror camps across the Line of Control (LoC) in what is being seen as the first cross-border air strike India has carried out in nearly five decades.
“Mirage jets left their base in Gwalior in Madhya Pradesh and after mid-air fuelling over Adampur in Punjab, they struck the terror camps in Balakot.”
When India decided to raise the bar after the Pulwama attack, Balakot was on the radar of Indian intelligence agencies for being a hub of JeM.
Intelligence agencies were sure that the Pulwama attack was also planned in Balakot terror camp which was headed by JeM chief Masood Azhar’s brother-in-law Maulana Yusuf Azhar.
The location of Balakot, well away from the LoC, made it a safe heaven for terrorist training. Even the Border Action Teams (BATs) of Pakistan army regulars, who carry out cross-border raids on Indian patrols on the LoC, are trained in Balakot.
Foreign Secretary Vijay K. Gokhale on Tuesday told the media that a very large number of JeM terrorists, including senior commanders, trainers and groups of jihadis who were being trained for fidayeen (suicide attack) missions, were eliminated in the operation.
“India struck the biggest training camp of JeM in Balakot. Credible intelligence was received that the JeM was attempting another suicide terror attack in various parts of the country (India), and the fidayeen jihadis were being trained for this purpose,” Gokhale said.
Pakistan’s Information and Broadcasting Minister Fawad Chaudhry on Tuesday announced a boycott of Indian movies as well as ‘Made in India’ advertisements in the country.
“Cinema Exhibitors Association has boycotted Indian content, no Indian movie will be released in Pakistan. Also have instructed PEMRA to act against ‘Made in India’ advertisements,” Chaudhry tweeted.
The move comes in response to an air strike by the Indian Air Force (IAF) on Jaish-e-Mohammed’s biggest terror camp in Balakot in Pakistan’s Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province early on Tuesday in retaliation to the February 14 attack in Pulwama, Jammu and Kashmir, which left 40 Indian CRPF troopers dead.
Clearly, cultural ties between India and Pakistan have been affected since just in December last year, Chaudhry had assured help to Indian filmmaker Nandita Das in releasing her film “Manto” in Pakistan.
Before that, Pakistan’s Supreme Court had placed a ban on the transmission of Indian content on local television channels. But movies were making their way to theatres and finding a good audience.
Right after the Pulwama attack, Indian film associations instructed filmmakers to avoid using any Pakistani talent in their movies and not to release their films in Pakistan. As a result, “Total Dhamaal” did not release there.
Kartik Aaryan’s “Luka Chuppi”, Diljit Dosanjh’s “Arjun Patiala” and Tigmanshu Dhulia’s “Milan Talkies” will also not release in Pakistan.
Pakistan Army confirmed that Indian fighter jets dropped “four bombs” during an operation on Tuesday but downplayed its significance, saying the Indian attack was repulsed and while going back the aircraft “jettisoned their payload.”
Army spokesman Major General Asif Ghafoor also said Pakistan will “surprise” India with its response that will be in all domains including “diplomatic, political and military.”
“Prime Minister Imran Khan told the army and people that get ready for any eventuality. Now it is time for India to wait for our response. We have decided. Wait for it,” Ghafoor said.
His remarks came hours after India bombed and destroyed Jaish-e-Mohammed’s (JeM) biggest training camp in Balakot in Pakistan’s restive Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, about 80-km from the Line of Control, early Tuesday, killing a “very large number” of terrorists, trainers and senior commanders.
The Mirage 2000 aircraft used in Tuesday’s strike on Jaish-e-Mohammed terror camp in Pakistan was chosen because of its ability to hit long-range targets with “pin-point” accuracy and drop a range of bombs and missiles including laser-guided ones, sources said.
India inducted the Mirage jets some 30 years ago and the aircraft have been and are being upgraded at a cost of around INR 20,000 crore. The multi-role, single engine jet is usually a single-pilot fighter with a range of about 1,500 km.
The French-designed jet can travel at more than twice the speed of sound, or at Mach 2.2 (2,336 kmph). It is capable of flying at an altitude of 59000 ft (17km). A commercial jetliner usually flies at 35,000 to 40,000 feet. India has other more advanced fighter jets such as the Sukhoi Su30MKI, but the Russian made jet is slower in the air with a maximum speed of 2,120 kmph or Mach 2. It is also heavier, which makes it less nimble than the Mirage with its delta wings.
Indian Air Force sources said the aircraft was preferred as it is capable of long-range engagement of targets and the assessment was that it can record 100 per cent success rate.
The Mirage also is fitted with the state-of-the art Thales RDY 2 radar system and a fly-by-wire flight control system with a Sextant VE-130 HUD, or heads up display that allows the pilot to see all the flight, navigation, target and weapons information in a virtual display array.
India currently has around three squadrons of Mirage 2000 fighter jets manufactured by HAL under licence from French aerospace major Dassault Aviation, which also will sell Rafale fighters to India soon. The Mirage squadrons are based in Gwalior.
The sources said the Mirage 2000 multi-role aircraft was chosen for the strike for its capability to hit targets with “pin-point” accuracy. A number of other assets and platforms of the IAF were also used in the operation, first inside Pakistan after the 1971 Indo-Pak war.
The sources said India will have a much wider choice of aircraft to carry out precision strikes when Rafale jets are inducted into the IAF as they are capable of hitting targets at longer range. India is procuring 36 Rafale jets at a cost of INR 58,000 crore and the first aircraft is scheduled to be delivered in September.
It is not clear whether the fleet of Mirage 2000s flew directly from Gwalior or they took off from other bases to carry out the strike.
The Mirage 2000 was first commissioned in 1985, when it was given the name Vajra, or thunderbolt. India initially bought 36 single-seater Mirage 2000 and 4 twin-seater Mirage 2000 after Pakistan bought F-16 fighters manufactured by Lockheed.