Army chief confirms Balakot terror camp reactivated, 500 waiting to infiltrate

Chennai: Army Chief General Bipin Rawat on Monday said Pakistan has reactivated Balakot very recently and about 500 men were waiting to infiltrate into India.

"Balakot has been reactivated by Pakistan very recently. That shows that Balakot has been affected. It had been damaged and destroyed. And that is why people have got away from there and now it has been reactivated," he told reporters at the Officers Training Academy here.

He said around 500 infiltrators were waiting to infiltrate into the country.

"...some action had been taken by Indian Air Force and now they have got the people back there," he said.

The decision came in the backdrop of India's decision to abrogate Article 370 and bifurcate the state into two Union territories.

Indian national security establishment had confirmed the reactivation of the Balakot facility, that is training 40 jihadists. The top levels of government were informed too.

According to intelligence sources, JeM may not only target J&K but also Gujarat and Maharashtra under a new name to avoid international scrutiny, Hindustan reported.

Indian Air Force (IAF) had launched the pre-emptive air strike on Balakot in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa on 26 February.

12 Mirage 2000 fighter jets launched an airstrike on Jaish-e-Mohammed training camp in retaliation against Pulwama terror attack in which 40 CRPF jawans were martyred.

According to Indian counter-terror operatives, anti-India terror groups that remained dormant since Pulwama and its aftermath were reactivated after August 5, when India decided to read down Article 370.

Moreover, the very next day, JeM commander Mufti Abdul Rauf Asghar met his contacts in the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), Pakistan’s spy agency, and drafted a jihadist response to India's move in Kashmir.

To create unrest in the Valley, Pakistan-based terror outfits have been asked to use Kashmiri-origin terrorists, say analysts. Few sleeping outfits like the Al Umnar Mujahideen led by Mushtaq Zargar alias Latram were also revived in this context.

People, who were closely observing Pakistan's action, said JeM has started advanced daura tarbiya courses, a religious programme, for 50 jihadists.

News agency IANS had reported that Islamabad reactivated nearly a dozen terror camps in Pakistan occupied Kashmir (PoK), close to the International Border along Jammu and Kashmir after New Delhi announced to scrap Kashmir's special status.

The Jaish-e-Mohammed has been banned in Pakistan since 2002, but it continues to train terrorists in Pakistan occupied Kashmir and provide them weapons to create troubles in Jammu and Kashmir.

Having maintained close relations with the Taliban and al Qaeda, it has carried out several attacks primarily in Jammu and Kashmir, news agency ANI reported.