A top Indian minister said
on Saturday the government would not share proof that “a very large number” of
militants were killed in air strikes inside Pakistan this week after doubts were
raised there were any casualties in the attack that stoked tensions between the
nuclear-armed rivals.
The flare-up appeared to be
easing on Saturday after Pakistan handed back a captured Indian fighter pilot
on Friday night, amid efforts by global powers to prevent another war between
the arch enemies.
However shelling across the
Line of Control (LoC) that acts as a de facto border in the disputed Kashmir
region, a frequent feature in recent weeks, continued, said military officials
on both sides.
Hostilities escalated
rapidly following a suicide car bombing on Feb. 14 that killed at least 40
Indian paramilitary police in Indian-controlled Kashmir. India accuses Pakistan
of harboring the Jaish-e Mohammad Islamist group that claimed the bombing.
Indian warplanes carried
out air strikes on Tuesday inside northeast Pakistan’s Balakot on what New
Delhi called militant camps. Islamabad denied any such camps existed, as did
local villagers in the area when Reuters visited.
Nevertheless, Pakistan
retaliated on Wednesday with its own aerial mission.
Pakistan said the Indian
bombs hit a largely empty hillside without hurting anyone. Some Indian
opposition leaders have asked the government to share evidence of the strikes.
But India’s Finance
Minister Arun Jaitley, one of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s top lieutenants,
said: “no security agencies ever share operational details”.
“It’s a very irresponsible
stand,” Jaitley said at a conference organized by the India Today media group.
“The armed forces must
have, and our security and intelligence agencies must have, a full leeway in
dealing with situations, and if anybody wants operational details to be made
public … he certainly does not understand the system.”
Indian Air Force officials
said earlier it was up to the political leaders to decide when and how to
release evidence of the Balakot strike.
Jaitley dismissed
suggestions that the rapid escalation in tensions with Pakistan had anything to
do with India’s domestic politics ahead of a general election due by May.
Pollsters expect the ruling party to benefit from the nationalistic passion
sweeping the country.
Reuters
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