Air Chief Marshal BS Dhanoa hints Balakot terror camp strike only a beginning, operations against terror camps in Pakistan is "ongoing"
New Delhi, March 4: Be it the enemies or anyone who questions the ability to fight for the nation, the forces have a befitting reply. Slyly slamming the opposition for mounting questions on the recent Balakot air strike, Indian Air Force (IAF) Chief B S Dhanoa said that the IAF hit the target given to them and doesn’t count the number of the dead, it is done by the government.
Addressing a press conference in Tamil Nadu’s Coimbatore, Dhanoa said the number of casualties at the Jaish-e-Mohammad training camp would be released by the government. In a stern reply to the oppositions erring questions, he said, “The IAF is not in a position to clarify the number of casualties. The government will clarify that. We don't count human casualties, we count what targets we have hit or not.”
He added that, "If we plan to hit the target, we hit the target. "If we had dropped bombs in the jungle, then no need for him [Pakistan] to respond."
The IAF chief’s statement comes amid the mounting questions by opposition on the government on the exact casualty figures after the IAF struck JeM’s biggest training camp in Balakot in Pakistan’s Khyber Pakhtunkhwa on February 26, days after an attack by the terror group killed 40 CRPF jawans in J&K’s Pulwama.
Commenting on the position of Wing Commander Abhinandan, IAF Chief Dhanoa said, the medical fitness of IAF Wing Commander Abhinandan Varthaman would be the decisive factor of his flying. He further added, "Whether he flies again or not it will be depended on his medical fitness. That's why post ejection he went on a medical check, thereafter whatever treatment is required we will give it to him. Once he gets his medical fitness then only he will get into a fighter cockpit."
Wing Commander Abhinandan Varthaman on Sunday underwent debriefings by security agencies even as his medical check up continued for the second day at a military hospital in New Delhi, officials said.
A number of senior Indian Air Force (IAF) officials also met Varthaman who was brought to Delhi after he returned to India from Pakistan through the Attari-Wagah border late Friday night.