'Citizens Have Right To Know': Sena on questions on Balakot strike impact

The Shiv Sena said today that India's citizens have the right to know about the casualties in the air strike on a Jaish-e-Mohammed or JeM terror camp in Pakistan's Balakot and that revealing such information would not lower the morale of the armed forces.

Taking a dig at its ally BJP, Shiv Sena, in an editorial in party mouthpiece 'Saamana' said discussions over the air strikes will linger on till the upcoming Lok Sabha polls and "burning issues" that were raised by the opposition before the February 14 Pulwama attack have now been side-stepped.

"Citizens of the country have the right to know what and how much harm has been caused to the enemy by our defence forces. We do not think the morale of our forces is being lowered by asking for it," the Sena said.

The Indian Air Force or IAF jets on February 26 bombed and destroyed Pakistan-based Jaish-e-Mohammed's terror camp in Balakot. The air strike came less than two weeks after the terror outfit claimed full responsibility for the Pulwama terror attack in which 40 soldiers were killed.

While the government has so far not given any official figure of the casualties in the air strikes, some in the opposition have been asking for a proof of it.

Referring to it, the Shiv Sena said, "How many terrorists were killed in our strikes on terror camps? Discussions over these will happen till the last days of polls because before the Pulwama attack, inflation, unemployment and Rafale jet deal were the burning issues for the Opposition."

The Modi government's "bomb" has fallen over these issues, it said in sarcastic remarks. Issues like the construction of Ram temple, Article 370 and those raised by farmers have "turned to ashes", said the Uddhav Thackeray-led party, which is an ally of the BJP at the Centre and in Maharashtra.

The Sena also said that the questions over the number of terrorists killed in the February 26 air strikes by IAF were not only being asked by the Opposition but by media of countries like the UK and the US as well.

-PTI