Pakistan media stick to official line on IAF's air strikes on JeM camp
Islamabad: Pakistani media gave extensive coverage to the Indian Air Force's (IAF) pre-dawn operation to destroy a Jaish-e-Mohammed terror camp in the country and most of them stuck to the official line that the Indian fighter jets entered the Pakistani territory by 3 to 4-km without doing any damage.
Hours after the strike, Foreign Secretary Vijay Gokhale told the media in New Delhi that a very large number of JeM terrorists, trainers, senior commanders and groups of jihadis who were being trained for fidayeen action were eliminated. Official sources also said the IAF jets used a number of laser-guided bombs, each weighing over 1,000 kg, to destroy the the JeM training facility in Balakot, around 80-KM from the Line of Control. All major Pakistani TV channels, including the state-run PTV, Geo, Dawn, Express, SAMAA, ARY broadcast throughout the day that Indian jets violated the LoC in early hours of Tuesday, but did not talk much about India's claim of having destroyed JeM camps in the Balakot valley.
The IAF bombed terror camps at multiple locations across the LoC on the Pakistani side in a pre-dawn strike, 12 days after the Pakistan-based terror group JeM carried out the Pulwama attack in Kashmir. There was no other news in the Pakistani media since 11 am on Tuesday except the "Indian aggression". Interestingly, the Pakistani media picked up the official line the Indian planes entered the Pakistani territory by 3 to 4-km and no damage was done. All the channels gave live coverage to the National Assembly session where leaders of the main opposition parties PMLN and PPP talked of unity in the face of "Indian aggression". PPP leader Khursheed Shah and former foreign minister Khwaja Asif said the Indian planes entered 30-km inside Pakistan, putting a question mark on the official claim of the government that the aircraft entered only 3 to 4-km. The media censored this statement of 30-km. Talking to C24 News, journalist Iftikhar Ahmed questioned if the Indian planes only violated Pakistan's air space by 3-km, then why the government took more than 12 hours to clarify on it.
