› Our objective was to strike the (terror) camp and we have done that… Their (Pak) objective was to hit our army places. They could not and that is the bottom line BS DHANOA, Indian Air Force chief
GWALIOR: The Indian air strike on a Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) terror camp in Pakistan’s Balakot was “over within 90 seconds” and the mission was carried out with such secrecy that not even close family members of the assault team knew about the developments, two pilots part of the predawn operation on February 26 said on Tuesday.
Indian Air Force (IAF) fighter planes destroyed the JeM camp in Pakistan’s Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s province after entering Pakistani airspace for the first time in 48 years following a suicide bombing claimed by the terror group that killed 40 troopers of the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) in Jammu and Kashmir’s Pulwama on February 14.
“It was over in 90 seconds; we released the weapon and we turned back,” said one of the Mirage 2000 fighter pilots in the first such account of the Indian airstrike.
“No one, not even my close family knew,” the IAF pilot said, asking not to be named.
“Next day, when news broke, my wife asked me whether I was part of the attack. I kept quiet and slept off,” he added.
The Pulwama attack led to an escalation in tensions between India and Pakistan and pushed the two countries to the brink of war as the IAF strike was followed by an engagement by Pakistani combat jets near the Line of Control (LoC) on February 27. Pakistan later released IAF pilot Wing Commander Abhinandan Varthaman, whose jet went down across the LoC, under global pressure, easing tensions between the two nations.
