KPK town hit in deadly strike

While the Pakistani military claimed the area hit by India was close to the Line of Control (LoC), Reuters described Balakot as a town in a remote valley in Pakistan’s Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KPK) province.

Islamabad admitted that the IAF planes struck Balakot in Pakistan Kashmir but claimed that they returned when it scrambled its war planes and that there were no losses on the ground. Pakistan Army spokesperson Major General Asif Ghafoor said earlier that the Indian intrusion in Muzaffarabad sector happened, 3-4 miles from the LoC that divides Kashmir between the two countries.

However, the circumstantial evidence and some of the news inputs from various agencies appear to support the Indian statement that it had hit the camps in Balakot in KPK.

Balakot is a town in Mansehra district in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province of Pakistan, which is 80km from the Line of Control. The town was destroyed in the 2005 devastating earthquake, but was later rebuilt. When BBC Hindi talked to the some residents of a village in Balakot, they claimed that they heard some explosions in the early hours, probably at 3am.

Jammu and Kashmir’s former chief minister Omar Abdullah said in a tweet: “If this is Balakote in KPK it’s a major incursion & a significant strike by IAF planes. However if it’s Balakote in Poonch sector, along the LoC it’s a largely symbolic strike because at this time of the year forward launch pads & militant camps are empty & nonfunctional.”

Indian daily The Hindu’s diplomatic affairs editor Suhasini Haidar tweeted the aerial strikes took place in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, quoting some highly-placed sources. “JeM camp attacked was the biggest training camp, situated in KPK [not the one along the LoC],” sources said, according to