New Delhi: In a stunning revelation regarding the Balakot airstrike on February 26, 2019, former Pakistani diplomat Agha Hilaly admitted on a news television show that 300 terrorists had died.
The information came as a shock to the Imran Khan administration.
Hilaly was speaking during a debate on a Pakistani Urdu channel. This flies in the face against the zero casualties claim made by Pakistan repeatedly since.
“India crossed the international border and did an act of war in which at least 300 were reported dead. Our target was different from theirs. We targeted their high command. That was our legitimate target because they are men of the military. We subconsciously accepted that a surgical strike — a limited action — did not result in any casualty. Now we have subconsciously told them that, whatever they will do, we’ll do only that much and won’t escalate,” said Agha Hilaly.
The 2019 Balakot airstrike was conducted by India in the early morning hours of 26 February when Indian warplanes crossed the de facto border in the disputed region of Kashmir, and dropped bombs in the vicinity of the town of Balakot in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province in Pakistan.
