Up to government to decide on release of IAF strike images

NEW DELHI: Even as a political battle raged, with Congress demanding the government clarify the accounts on casualties, and BJP countering, asking why the opposition was doubting the armed forces, television channels on Wednesday played yet another set of satellite images claiming that the targets at the Jaish terror camp had been hit.

The images showed areas that were identified as blast impact sites where vegetation was allegedly damaged. The TV reports claimed that this was the result of the blasts at the buildings that were hit. It was also alleged that the bodies of terrorists at the camp might have been buried at the site to hide evidence and there were efforts to rebuild the roofs. Indian government sources have previously said the attack did not target the entire Jaish campus, but only 5-6 specific buildings. IAF chief Air Chief Marshal B S Dhanoa has said the designated targets were hit even as he did not offer an estimate of how many persons may have died.

So far, though representatives of foreign media have visited Balakot and some accounts had residents claiming that there had been few or no casualties, no one has been allowed at the camp itself that is near Balakot on a hilltop. Some journalists have reported that locals have spoken of a few dozen bodies being removed from the area.

The IAF is sticking to its stand that it hit the intended targets in pre-dawn strikes on February 26. “The bombs, which were pre-loaded with satellite images and geographical coordinates of the JeM facility, pierced the roofs of the targeted buildings and exploded inside. The inmates would have been killed by the blast and shock waves,” a source said.

Rejecting commercially available satellite imagery being used by some experts to claim there was no major visible external damage to the facility, IAF sources said it was up to the government to decide whether it wanted to release the SAR (synthetic aperture radar) and other pictures captured by Indian surveillance platforms.

The Reuters report said, “Lewis and Dave Schmerler, a senior research associate at the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation studies who also analyses satellite images, said weapons that large would have caused obvious damage to the structures visible in the picture.” It then quoted Lewis saying, “If the strike had been successful, given the information we have about what kind of munitions were used, I would expect to see signs that the buildings had been damaged. I just don’t see that here