A Italian Journalist Claims That IAF Air Strikes In Balakot Killed Up To 170 JeM Terrorists

Ever since the pre-dawn Indian Air Force raid in Balakot, Pakistan targeting Jaish-e-Muhammad (JeM) camps, there has been confusion over the number of fatalities.

While Pakistan has been maintaining that the IAF aircrafts missed the target and there were no deaths, most of the Indian media and some minister have said that up to 300 JeM terrorists were killed in the strike. The IAF which carried out the air strike maintains that the intended targets were hit and there was a large number of casualties but stopped short of putting any official figures.

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The Air Force also claimed that there were around 300 active mobile phones at the location at the time of the air strike. Now an Italian journalist has added another twist to the entire episode.

Francesca Marino, an Italian journalist, and author has claimed that up to 170 JeM terrorists were killed in the air strike on February 26.

In a report published in stringerasia.it, she claimed that an Army unit, from their camp in Shinkiari, arrived at the location of the strike at around 6 am, and took away the injured to a Harkat-ul-Mujahideen camp, where they were treated by Pakistan Army doctors.

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She also reported that around 20 of the injured have died during treatment, while some others are still undergoing treatment.

Quoting local sources, she further said that the number of deaths could be from 130-170, including those who have died during treatment.

Those killed included 11 trainers, ranging from bomb makers to those imparting weapons training. Two of them were from Afghanistan.

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Ever since the air strike the Pakistani Army has taken absolute control of the area and did not even let local reporters go there. Only after 43 days, Pakistan took a group of international reporters to the spot in a 'guided tour' to show them that the air strike did not hit any buildings.

In her report, Marino also added that the families of those killed in the air strike have been offered money not to speak out.

She also corroborated another development in the area, which Reuters had earlier reported. The missing signboards of the JeM linked Madrasa. Earlier when an Al Jazeera team had visited the spot one of the photos showed the signboard.

But later when a Reuters team went to the same spot the board which had the name of Masood Azhar was gone. In her report, Marino stated that now there is a freshly painted signboard of the Taleem-ul-Quran.