Pakistan responded with a fog of misinformation when Indian jets bombed Jaish targets in retaliation for Pulwama. Civilians, state and nonactors from across the border tried to discredit the February 26 IAF strikes, spraying social and international media with a barrage of doctored images and conflicting statements.

But India Today TV’s Special Investigation Team has penetrated the deception. The network's undercover reporters have caught residents of Balakot admitting on tape that the Indian raids also caused military casualties and not just destruction of terror infrastructure and militants.

In Balakot, near the Jaish camp that the IAF bombed, mosque worker Mohammad Naeem told India Today TV's investigative reporters that several Pakistani soldiers were killed in the Indian strikes late last month.

I am speaking from the Nor mosque in Sehri, Naeem said as he confirmed his identity to the SIT on the phone. How many people would have died in the Indian strikes? the reporter probed.

BALAKOT LOCAL CONFIRMS PAK ARMY LOSSES

Whatever I have seen or read, four or five people from the Pakistani army lost their lives, Naeem replied on his local phone 312-557xxxx. Pakistani army? asked the SIT journalist. Yes, army people too have (died), Naeem said. Are you sure they have died? asked the reporter. Yes, yes, he said. His comments suggested the raided Jaish camp was trained by Pakistani soldiers. The SIT next contacted a cleric from a mosque in another Balakot neighbourhood.

BALAKOT CLERIC SAYS QAYAMAT KA MANZAR’

Rehman, the cleric, recounted the IAF bombing as Qayamat ka Manzar, or a doomsday moment.

He confirmed that the airstrikes left a building badly damaged. A building got damaged. Yes, everyone got up, the sound of explosions was so loud that everyone came out of their homes, he said on his phone 312-580xxxx. There were four explosions, everybody was scared, it was 'Qayamat ka Manzar'.

POK POLICE: PAK ARMY MUZZLED F-16 INFO

In Pakistan-occupied Kashmir, a police official promised to protect the site of an F-16 downed in an aerial engagement with the IAF along with the LoC. Pakistan has been consistently denying using the American made warplanes despite India displaying fragments of an advanced missile from the felled F-16. At Bhimber in PoK, the truth came tumbling out when the SIT dialled the city police station, posing as Pakistani military spies.

An officer who picked up the phone revealed the Pakistani army has ordered the entire security establishment not to let any information about the crashed jet go out. Sir, we have been asked not to give any information about it, the Bhimber police official said on the phone. Who gave you these instructions? asked the reporter. Sir, this decision was taken at a meeting our senior officers had with army officials, the official replied.

Secrecy envelopes F-16s in Pakistan because the fighters were deployed against India in the post-Balakot escalation in violation of agreements that limit their use to counter-terror operations. The Bhimber police official didn't deny the aircraft wreck. Instead, he obeyed the command when asked to guard the site where the jet came down after it was hit by an Indian fighter plane.

This is Captain Haneef. Go to the place where the Pakistani jet crashed and see to it that no foreign journalists reach there, the reporter asked the police official. Okay, he replied. I am talking about the spot where the Pakistani jet has crashed. Nobody should know that our plane crashed, the undercover journalist continued. Okay ji, okay, okay, answered the PoK official.

NO LEASH ON JAISH TERROR FUNDING

On international media, Pakistan first owned up harbouring Jaish-e-Mohammad chief Masood Azhar but took a 180-degree turn over the outfit's presence on Pakistani soil a week later. Azhar is in Pakistan and very unwell. He is unwell to the extent that he cannot leave his house, said Shah Mehmood Qureshi, the country's foreign minister recently in an interview broadcast globally. It was followed by rebuttal from Pakistan's military spokesman, Major General Asif Ghafoor.

Jaish-e-Mohammad does not exist in Pakistan. It’s been proscribed by the United Nations and Pakistan, Ghafoor said in another interview on international media. Pakistan also later issued tall claims about its clampdown on terror, including detention of a number of militants.

But India Today TV found Jaish-e-Mohammad is still brazenly skimming funds from foreign donors. The probe tracked the Jaish's fundraising activities through its weekly al Qalam, published from Peshawar by Talha Saif, the head of the terror group's propaganda wing.

India Today TV’s investigative team scrutinised all previous issues of the journal closely and zeroed in on an advertisement seeking funds on behalf of Jaish-e-Mohammad.

The investigative reporters called up the people named in the

advert, posing as Dubai businessmen of Pakistani origin. Mohammad Riyaz, a fundraiser mentioned in the Jaish advertisement available on his Pakistani number 0321 871****, suggested the undercover SIT reporters contact another Jaish man in Lahore to deliver donations. He assumed the phone call came from Pakistan's Punjab province.

I saw your advertisement and wanted to donate, the reporter asked. I am in Karachi but our people are there (in Lahore)," Riyaz replied. "This is my Balochistan number. If you are in Lahore, you can contact them in Lahore or on the centralized number. Note it down. It's 0321-25xxxxx." Who's number is this? the journalist probed.

This belongs to Abdulla Nadeem Sahab, Riyaz replied. When contacted again, he offered his personal account to deposit donations. Jaish does not have its own account. But I can give you my personal account number. If you deposit the money into it, I'll hand it over to someone close here, Inshallah," he said.

"This account is in the name of Mohammad Riyaz at Bank Islami in Karachi. Account number 100200124*****1. Riyaz boasted such transactions attract no surveillance. "This is my private account. Nobody has any information about it. I will send the money (to Jaish), Inshallah," he said.