A madrasa, or Islamic school, on a remote hilltop in northeastern Pakistan that ...
JABA, Pakistan - A madrasa, or Islamic school, on a remote hilltop in northeastern Pakistan that was the target of an Indian air strike just over six weeks ago is still not ready to give up its secrets.
The expectation among some of the visitors was that it might help to settle a number of mysteries about the attack. In particular, whether, as India had said, it was a huge success and took out a major militant training camp or whether - as Pakistan says - India’s warplanes missed the madrasa compound completely and hit surrounding hills instead. The difference - as many as 300 dead militants or no fatalities at all.
But the journalists and diplomats, most of whom spent well over an hour climbing steep slopes to get to the madrasa in the Jaba village area near the town of Balakot, didn’t get enough time to make any kind of informed assessment. “I don’t think the site was hit but I still can’t be 100 percent after today,” said one Western diplomat. “As to whether JeM were here - they may have been but I can’t determine that from this either.”When asked after the visit about the limitations, armed forces chief spokesman Major General Asif Ghafoor said Pakistan had nothing to hide and that if schedules allowed, journalists could in the future come and spend a night or even a month at the site.
Other Indian officials have come up with similar claims but despite repeated requests from journalists, the Indian government has not produced evidence that a camp was destroyed or that any militants were killed. Those visiting the site on Wednesday didn’t see any signs that there had been significant building work to either clear structures or erect new ones. And the vegetation didn’t appear to have suffered the stress that might be expected from a missile attack.
Singapore Latest News, Singapore Headlines
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