Air Marshal Simhakutty Varthaman (Retd), the father of Wing Commander Abhinandan Varthaman, has said that the Indian Air Force (IAF) strike on a Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) training camp have killed around 300 terrorists.
The retired Air Marshal made the comments on Wednesday while addressing a meet at IIT-Madras.
According to a TOI report, Air Marshal Varthaman said that the SPICE-2000 bombs used in the 26 February operation is a type of bomb whose fuse is delayed to ensure maximum casualties.
“The Indian Air Force strike happened when the maximum target were inside the camp. The structural damage might be limited, but the fuse of the bomb is delayed to ensure maximum casualties,” he was quoted as saying by TOI.
The Air Marshal further said that according to his reading of the events, the IAF used deception to ensure that the strike could be carried out successfully without the Pakistan Air Force (PAF) getting an inkling of it.
He said that real threat to IAF was Pakistan’s F-16s and AMRAAM missiles.
“We had to first get F-16s off our back by making sure they were headed to some other direction,” the air force veteran said.
The highly-decorated Air Marshal also stressed that the IAF attack on the JeM camp at Balakot was “pre-emptive and non-military” and was selected to avoid civilian casualties.
The Air Marshal’s comments came at a time when the opposition parties have been questioning the attack and asking for proof of the number of terrorists killed.
In rally after rally, the ruling BJP has been slamming the opposition parties for raising questions on the IAF airstrike.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi had on Wednesday at two rallies in West Bengal criticised Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee over the same.
Though the IAF has not given the exact number of terrorists killed in the operation, at a press conference last week Air Chief Marshal BS Dhanoa had said that Pakistan was refusing to acknowledge the damage in Balakot even though the proof existed in the form of bombed-out JeM camp.
“It is there in front of you (Pakistan), but you don’t want to see it…I can only recall Dylan, ‘And how many times can a man turn his head, and pretend that he just doesn’t see; the answer, my friend, is blowin’ in the wind..,” he said quoting an iconic track from Bob Dylan’s 1963 album, ‘The Freewheeling Bob Dylan’.
The airstrike on Balakot was carried out days after the Pulwama attack which led to the deaths of 44 CRPF troopers.