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Updated: Jul 03, 2020 03:01 IST

Army chief General Bipin Rawat on Monday said that Jaish-e-Mohammed’s terror facility in Pakistan’s Balakot, which was bombed the Indian Air Force seven months ago, has been reactivated.

“Balakot has been reactivated by Pakistan very recently. It had been damaged and destroyed. And that is why people have got away from there and now it has been reactivated. It shows some action had been taken by Indian Air Force and now they have got the people back there,” Rawat said in Chennai.

Hindustan Times had reported on Sunday that the Balakot camp is functional again and 40 jihadists were being trained there to carry out attacks in Jammu and Kashmir and other places in India. The terrorists are working under the garb of a new name to avoid international scrutiny.

Hindustan Times had on September 22, reported that the Balakot camp is fully functional.

Indian Air Force fighters on February 27 this year bombed the terror camp at Balakot in Pakhtunkhwa province of Pakistan. India responded after the suicide attack in Jammu and Kashmir’s Pulwama that led to the death of 40 Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) troopers. Tensions between the India and Pakistan had escalated after the Pulwama attack.

The revival of the Balakot terror camp comes just a month after India revoked Article 370 that gave special status to Jammu and Kashmir and bifurcated the state into the union territories of J&K and Ladakh.

Pakistan relaxed restrictions on terrorist groups targeting India after New Delhi’s decision on Article 370.

According to inputs from intelligence agencies, other than J&K Jaish terrorists may also target Gujarat and Maharashtra. Terror groups based in Pakistan are reviving dormant groups like the Al Umnar Mujahideen after being told to use Kashmiri- origin terrorists.

Jaish, the terror group headed by UN designated global terrorist Masood Azhar, has now decided to divert its cadre from the Afghanistan to Jammu and Kashmir.

At the ‘Howdy, Modi!’ mega rally in Houston on Sunday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had hit out at Pakistan and said India’s India’s decision on Article 370 has troubled some people who can’t even handle their own country. With US president Donald Trump in attendance, PM Modi called for a decisive battle against terrorism. “Be it 9/11 in America or 26/11 in Mumbai, where can the conspirators be found?” he said in a jab at Islamabad.