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Updated: Apr 05, 2019 12:32 IST

The entire nation knows about the Balakot strike when the Indian Air Force struck a Jaish camp deep inside Pakistan in February, but none of us know that Prime Minister Narendra Modi stayed up after the operation and surfed the Net to see if the world would react. The PM revealed this in an interview on Friday.

“When at 3.40 am I was told that the operation was over and our forces had returned safely, I did not sleep, I surfed the Net to see if there was any reaction anywhere in the world,” PM Modi told television channel ABP News.

The Prime minister added that it was only around 5.30 am that a Pakistani official tweeted about the operation. “After that I called all the concerned people for a meeting, around 7 am”, the PM said.

In an early morning strike on February 25, IAF struck the biggest Jaish camp in Pakistan in retaliation to the terror outfit targeting a busload of jawans in Pulwama on February 14. Forty jawans were killed in the attack. Soon after the strike, at 5.36 am, spokesperson of Pakistani Armed Forces Major General Asif Ghafoor tweeted about the operation.

PM Modi, when asked if he got minute to minute updates of the Balakot operation, said even if there is a bus accident anywhere, I keep following it up, “How can I sleep if I know the operation is going to happen?”

On the Opposition seeking proof of the strike, the Prime Minister said: “The biggest proof is the tweet by the Pakistan official, we did not publicise the operation, they did.”

Pakistan’s problem is that they cannot rake up the operation beyond a point, because they will then have to admit that it was on a terrorist camp, the PM added.

Responding to a question on whether ties with Pakistan could be improved, PM Modi said: “For that, they will have to stop exporting terror”. Giving an example of India’s equation with China, the PM said that we had differences and disputes with them too but otherwise we stay engaged, we discuss issues, do business.