Historically tense relations between neighbouring India and Pakistan went into a downward spiral after a Pakistan-based terrorist organisation claimed responsibility for a suicide attack that killed over 40 Indian soldiers last month.
The Indian defence establishment said on Friday it had synthetic aperture radar (SAR) images to prop up its claim of having successfully hit an alleged training facility of the Jaish-e Mohammad terror group at Balakot in the Pakistani province of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa during a 26 February airstrike, The Times of India reported.
“The SAR films clearly show before and after pictures of the intended targets being hit. It’s up to the government whether it wants to release them or not. Pakistan, of course, has also worked swiftly to repair the damage to the site”, an unnamed defence official was cited as saying.
The sources have reportedly refused to provide further details on the platform used to take those images.
The statement comes after a few independent experts cast doubt on the success of the Mirage-2000 fighters’ operation. They assumed that while there was little evidence of damage to the alleged terror facility in the satellite photos, craters caused by bombs were visible in open areas around 150 to 200 metres from the buildings.