8 scribes taken to Balakot camp by Pakistani Army

New Delhi: The Pakistan Army took eight journalists to Jaish-e-Mohammed’s Balakot madrasa on Thursday one month after it was hit during a pre-emptive airstrike by the Indian Air Force (IAF), according to intelligence sources.

The place was a training camp of the Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM). Earlier Pak Army had denied access to the place to international journalists, including Reuters, “on security concerns.”

Accoriding to intelligence sources, these journalists were taken to the camp in a helicopter. These journalists were at the camp from 10 am till 3 pm.

There were 300 students in the madrasa during the visit. “These journalists were allowed to talk to these students. Some of them also conducted interview,” said sources.

The place was heavily guarded by the Pak’s paramilitary Frontier Corps and many places were still out of bound for these journalists.

Some places in Balakot were also covered with tarpaulin sheets.

“This was an attempt by the Pakistan to weave a story that nothing was hit during the strike and they are trying to build a narative that there was no  training camp in Balakot,” said sources.

Defence minister Nirmala Sitharaman had said that why Pakistan authorities were not allowing foreign journalists to see the JeM training camp when the neighbouring country was claiming that only trees were struck down during the air strike by IAF.

Earlier this month, news agency Reuters had said that Pakistani security officials had prevented its team from climbing a hill in north-eastern Pakistan to the site of a madrasa and a group of surrounding buildings that was targeted by Indian warplanes.

The news agency had said that it was third time in the past nine days that Reuters reporters had visited the area — and each time the path up to what villagers say was a religious school run at one time by militant group Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) and what the Indian government says was a “terrorist” training camp — was blocked.

The Pakistani security officials guarding the way to the site cited “security concerns” for denying access.

“The Reuters team could view the madrasa from 100 meters away and only from below. The building that reporters could see was surrounded by undamaged pine trees, and did not show any signs of damage or activity but given the view, the assessment is very limited,” news agency had said.