Pakistan has reactivated Balakot camp: Rawat

TERROR TRAINING FACILITY 500 infiltrators waiting to sneak into India, says army chief

CHENNAI/ NEW DELHI: Army chief General Bipin Rawat on Monday said that Jaish-e-mohammed’s terror facility in Pakistan’s Balakot, which was bombed the Indian Air Force (IAF) seven months ago and brought India and Pakistan to the brink of war, has been reactivated and about 500 infiltrators were waiting to sneak into India.

The response to the terror camp getting functional again may go beyond India’s previous response by way of an air strike in February, he told reporters at the Officers Training Academy in Chennai.

“Balakot has been reactivated by Pakistan very recently. It had been damaged and destroyed. And that is why people have got away from there and now it has been reactivated. It shows some action had been taken by Indian Air Force and now they have got the people back there,” the army chief said.

Rawat, however, did not provide any proof to his claim.

Hindustan Times had reported on August 22 that the Balakot camp is functional again and 40 jihadists were being trained there to carry out attacks in Jammu and Kashmir and other places in

GENERAL BIPIN RAWAT, army chief

India. The terrorists are working under the garb of a new name to avoid international scrutiny.

IAF fighters had on February 27 bombed the terror camp at Balakot in Pakhtunkhwa province of Pakistan in response to the suicide attack on a Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) convoy in Jammu and Kashmir’s Pulwama that led to the death of 40 troopers.

Pakistan had denied the strike was carried out from its soil. It also said no such camps were hit or operated in the area. The next day, Pakistan’s air force shot down an IAF jet during an aerial combat and took Indian Air Force pilot Wing Commander Abhinandan Varthaman as prisoner. He was later released.

The revival of the Balakot terror camp comes just a month after India abrogated Articles 370 and 35A of the Constitution that gave special status to J&K and bifurcated the state into the Union territories of Jammu & Kashmir and Ladakh.

Pakistan relaxed restrictions on terrorist groups targeting India after New Delhi’s August 5 and 6 decision.

The chief of the Army, on being asked if a repeat strike may be expected, said: “Why must you expect repeat of a similar thing, earlier we did something, then we

Why repeat [Balakot air strike]? Why not keep the other side [Pakistan] guessing as to what we will do... Why not something beyond that?