TIL Desk/World/Islamabad/ Pakistan’s military on Monday once again claimed that there was “no damage” in the Balakot air strike carried out by India and asserted that it will facilitate the Indian journalists if they wish to visit the area to “see the truth”. Addressing a press conference at the General Headquarters in Rawalpindi, Pakistan military spokesperson Major General Asif Ghafoor alleged that India had been “lying repeatedly” and Pakistan has not responded to those lies.
“Since the last two months India has been continuing to lie. As a responsible country we have not responded to their lies,” he said. “The truth is that there was an incident in Pulwama. Attacks on the police in Pulwama have happened before. There was no damage at our end in Balakot. We took local and foreign media there to show them [the truth]. We will facilitate Indian media if they choose to come to Balakot to see the truth,” Ghafoor said.
Tensions flared up between India and Pakistan after a suicide bomber of Pakistan-based Jaish-e-Muhammed (JeM) killed 40 CRPF personnel in Kashmir’s Pulwama district on February 14. Amid mounting outrage, the Indian Air Force (IAF) carried out a counter-terror operation, hitting the biggest JeM training camp in Balakot, deep inside Pakistan on February 26. The next day, Pakistan Air Force retaliated and downed a MiG-21 in an aerial combat and captured an IAF pilot, who was handed over to India on March 1.
