ISLAMABAD: Former Indian High Commissioner to Pakistan Ajay Bisaria has admitted that India has only stories but no concrete proof of the success of the Balakot strikes in 2019.
He made this revelation during an interview with The Wire on the occasion of the launch of his recently released book ‘Anger Management: The Troubled Diplomatic Relationship between India and Pakistan’.
“You may never know for sure how successful the strike was,” the former envoy said during the interview.
This is the first time that a senior Indian diplomat, who was serving as the Indian High Commissioner in Islamabad at the time of the Balakot strike, has admitted to the media that India still has no evidence of the targets that the Indian Air Force boasted of striking. Balakot.
India carried out an airstrike on Balakot on 26 February 2019, while Pakistan responded with airstrikes on Indian-held territory and the ensuing battle, Pakistan Air Force (PAF) aircraft shot down two Indian aircraft and captured Indian pilot Abhinandan Varthaman.
Earlier, when the book was released, a high-ranking source in Pakistan’s foreign ministry told a section of the press that the former Indian high commissioner had “definitely given an exaggerated account of events. The timing of the book’s publication is also suspicious. It is clear that he wants to project Modi as a strong leader who has the ability to take bold decisions.”
During an interview with The Wire conducted by journalist Karan Thapar, Bisaria, according to Thapar, discussed that the terrorists behind the February 2019 Pulwama attack “were lucky to get an unprotected target in a convoy of vehicles” and “met with unexpected success”. . “.
Bisaria was asked if he was repeating what Satya Pal Malik, then Governor of India’s Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK), told The Wire in an interview last year when he claimed the terror attack was the result of “incompetence”. and the “negligence” of the Indian system.
Bisaria was also asked what evidence India has to corroborate the statement of the then Indian foreign minister, whom Bisaria quotes in his book, that in Balakot “a very large number of JeM terrorists, trainers, senior commanders and groups of jihadis who were trained for fidayeen operations were liquidated.” At this point in the interview, Bisaria acknowledged that India only had narratives but no proof of Balakot’s success.
Wire’s interview with Bisaria focused on Pakistan’s response to Balakot, the downing of Abhinandan’s MiG-21 and why Pakistan decided to return it within days.
The interview also discussed Bisario’s view that Pakistan “panicked” as well as what he says in his book about panic on the Indian side as well, including a phone call from then Indian Foreign Minister Sushma Swaraj to the then US Secretary of State. of State Mike Pompeo in the middle of the night because she feared that Pakistan was about to use nuclear weapons against India.
Thapar points out to Bisari that Satya Pal Malik also said that there was a serious intelligence failure and that he shared it with Indian Prime Minister Modi but was told to keep quiet and not talk about it, and that he has an immediate impression that the Prime Minister intended to blame Pakistan and gain electoral advantage for the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
At one point, Thapar also asked Bisario why a “nuclear-armed country” would panic at the prospect of nine missiles ready to launch. Bisaria then indicated that there was a degree of panic on the Indian side.
The interviewer also pointed out that it will be difficult to reveal the full truth about Pulwama or Balakot as long as there is a BJP government under Modi, as anything that suggests India’s incompetence or questions the alleged success of Balakot will never be officially revealed.
