NEW DELHI: Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal on Monday said that BJP president Amit Shah took a stand contradictory to that of the armed forces over the number of terrorists killed in the pre-dawn air strikes on terror group Jaish-e-Mohammed’s training camps in Pakistan.
On Sunday, Mr Shah said the air strikes killed more than 250 terrorists, while the armed forces have not put out any official figure. “The armed forces are also saying this. Amit Shah is saying that the armed forces are lying, 250 (terrorists) were killed. Amit Shah is calling the armed forces a liar. The country will not tolerate this under any circumstances,” Mr Kejriwal tweeted in Hindi, referring to a news report which quotes union minister S.S. Ahluwalia saying that the purpose of the strike was to send a message and not to kill.
In another tweet, the Delhi chief minister said the whole country stands with the armed forces while the BJP stands against them.
“The armed forces cannot lie but the BJP is lying. The whole country stands with the armed forces but BJP stands against them,” Kejriwal said.
At an event in Ahmedabad, Shah had said, “After Pulwama attack, everyone was thinking that we can’t do surgical strike so what will happen. But Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government, on the 13th day (after the attack), conducted air strikes and killed more than 250 terrorists.”
At a press conference this morning, IAF chief B.S. Dhanoa declined to comment on the death toll in the Balakot strike, saying it was for the government to provide details on the number of terrorists killed.
“We don’t count human casualties. We count what targets we have hit or not hit,” he said.
The bomb damage assessment that is done post a mission only calculates the target that has been hit or not hit, the air chief noted. “We can’t count how many people have died. That depends on how many people were there,” Dhanoa said, adding that a statement on the number of terrorists killed will be made by the government.
