IAF strike at Balakot killed 4-5 Pakistani soldiers, claims media report

New Delhi, March 11 (IANS): A media report on Monday claimed that the Indian Air Force (IAF) strike at a Jaish camp in Balakot inside Pakistan on February 26 also killed at least four Pakistani soldiers besides damaging the camp infrastructure and killing militants. The 'India Today' report said that its "undercover reporters caught residents of Balakot and police officials" in Pakistan-administered Kashmir "admitting on tape" that the Indian strikes also caused military casualties. "In Balakot, near the JeM terror camp that the IAF bombed, mosque worker Mohammad Naeem told India Today TV's investigative reporters that several Pakistani soldiers were killed in the Indian air strikes late last month," the report said. "Whatever I have seen or read, four or five people from the Pakistani Army lost their lives," the report quoted Naeem as saying. "The team of reporters then contacted Rehman, a cleric from a mosque in another Balakot neighbourhood, who recounted the IAF bombing as 'Qayamat ka manzar' (a doomsday moment)," it further said. "He confirmed that the air strikes left a building badly damaged," it said.

Agencies warn militants planning 'big attack' in Kashmir

[caption id="attachment_238068" align="alignleft" width="500"] Indian Army’s Lt General KJS Dhillon addresses a joint press conference at Army’s 15 Corps headquarters Badami Bagh in Srinagar on Monday (PTI)[/caption] Security forces on Monday intensified their vigil in Jammu and Kashmir after "generic intelligence inputs" about militants planning something "big" during the coming days. "Yes, there is a generic intelligence input suggesting that JeM is planning some big attack whose responsibly will not be taken by the the militant outfit. The JeM wants other militant outfits operating here to own the responsibility if they succeed in carrying out the attack", said a senior intelligence officer. A senior officer of the security forces said the intelligence inputs are of two types. "One is a generic input based on intercepts between militant groups and their handlers or between militants of locally operating groups about the possibility of a militant strike. "Generic inputs are mostly in the nature of alerts which are passed down the chain of command for maintaining extra vigil," said the officer. "The other intelligence input is called specific intelligence input which contains actionable information such as where and when a certain militant attack is likely to take place." "At present we don't have any specific actionable input about militants planning a certain specific attack," said the officer, adding the intelligence input they have at the moment is of a genetic nature. Most of the leadership of Jaish-e-Muhammad (JeM) outfit that carried out the Pulwama terror strike has been eliminated by the security forces in the last three weeks. Lieutenant General K.J.S. Dhillon, Corps Commander of Srinagar headquartered 15 Corps told reports on Monday: "During the last three weeks, we have killed 18 terrorists out of whom 10 were foreigners belonging to the JeM terror group while eight were local JeM cadre". He said the Army and other security agencies are aggressively going after JeM terrorists. Intelligence inputs of "generic nature" suggest that JeM could be planning some major attack during the coming days either on its own or in tandem with groups such as the Lashakar-e-Taiba and the Hizbul Mujahideen. That the JeM would not like to take responsibility for the attack is understandable as the security forces have already turned on enough heat on this militant group, say intelligence sources. "We are fully geared to meet any challenge from the militants to ensure that any attack by the militant groups is prevented besides ensuring that security forces and civilians do not suffer casualties," said an officer. The CRPF has already revised its anti-militancy strategy asking its personnel to "wait, watch and take time". "The revised strategy is aimed at ensuring that the troopers do not suffer casualties, and also act with total coordination with other security forces during anti-militancy operations", said a senior CRPF officer