‘Munitions were chosen carefully’

During the air strike on Balakot in Pakistan, the Indian Air Force (IAF) went in for “clinical precision” and hit the intended targets, a senior defence official said on Thursday.

“The IAF didn’t go in for propaganda bombing. The objective was to hit the targets but avoid collateral damage to possible non-militant staff in adjacent buildings. The munitions were chosen accordingly,” the official said.

In the pre-dawn attack on February 26, 12 IAF Mirage-2000 fighter jets struck a Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) training camp in Balakot. Of the 12, at least four crossed the Line of Control (LoC), to varying distances, to release their payloads, the official said.

The IAF used SPICE-2000 precision-guided glide bombs, weighing 1,000 kg and having a range of up to 100 km. Most of the bomb consists of penetrators to pierce hardened structures, while the actual explosive is about 90 kg.

‘Images confirm targets were hit’

“The warhead would not cause total destruction of the buildings hit and neither was this being aimed for,” he said.

In all, the IAF hit four buildings, two of which were the main training complex and the other a seminary where religious training was imparted. The other two targets included accommodations for the cadres, he said.

There was no question on the capability of the bombs. The radar and high-resolution satellite images showed “we have hit the targets.” The buildings were not reinforced structures but conventional structures with metal or cement roofs, and the bomb would have just sliced through inside and only explode after hitting a hard surface.

The IAF had said a PAF F-16 was shot down by a MiG-21 piloted by Wing Commander Abhinandan Varthaman in a dogfight as Pakistani jets tried to bomb Indian Army installations on February 27. PAF jets used H4 standoff munitions to target Army positions but they were intercepted and the bombs fell in the open, the official said.

“Tail units of the H4 bombs and pieces of AMRAAM (Advanced Medium Range Air to Air Missile) fired by the F-16s were recovered,” he added.