‘BOMBED’ SITE FOUND INTACT
Satellite images cast doubt on Indian govt’s claim that it hit site in Pakistan
HIGH-RESOLUTION satellite images show that a religious school run by Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) in northeastern Pakistan appears to be still standing days after India claimed its warplanes had hit the Islamist group’s training camp on the site and killed many militants.
The images by Planet Labs Inc, a San Francisco-based private satellite operator, show at least six buildings on the site on March 4, six days after the airstrike.
Until now, no high-resolution satellite images were publicly available. But the images from Planet Labs, which show details as small as 72cm, offer a clearer look at the structures the Indian government said it attacked.
The image is virtually unchanged from an April 2018 satellite photo of the facility. There are no discernible holes in the roofs of buildings, no signs of scorching, blown-out walls, displaced trees around the madrasah or other signs of an aerial attack.
The images cast further doubt on statements made over the last eight days by the Indian government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi that the raids, early on Feb 26, had hit intended targets at the madrasah site near Jaba village and Balakot town in Pakistan’s Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.
India’s foreign and defence ministries did not reply to questions on the images and whether they undermine its official statements on the airstrikes.