'Pakistan took 40 days to take journalists to Balakot, they can whitewash,' says Nirmala Sitharaman
As India-Pakistan relation has soured over a period of time, the diplomacy between the two nuclear powered countries has taken a centre stage and Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has taken a pot-shot at the delay in making arrangements to showcase the sight of Balakot by Pakistan to journalists.
The relation of India-Pakistan took a plunge in February this year, when Pakistan based terror group Jaish-e-Mohammed carried out suicide bombing in Jammu and Kashmir’s Pulwama at the CRPF convoy, which claimed the lives of more than 40 soldiers and brought the whole nation to a standstill.
Post this attack, India had conducted “pre-emptive non-military” air strike across the LoC in Balakot with more than 1000 kgs of bomb and Pakistan had retaliated with its F-16 jets and had attacked Indian armaments and military setup.
Recently, Pakistan took a delegation of journalists to the alleged site of Balakot where India had conducted aerial strikes but India stands firm that after more than a month, the destruction would have been “whitewashed.”
“First of all, they needed 40 days to take select journalists. The information that I have is that they took them to the madrasa, which was never attacked, never touched, and never part of the scheme. Second, they would have taken them on a guided tour. The place where the suicide bombers are trained has not been made accessible,” said Nirmala Sitharaman to The Indian Express.
Sitharaman further added that “Even if you are showing the exterior, what happened inside — these questions are not answered. So it doesn’t matter. They can do the necessary whitewashing, they can take as many people as they want.”
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First published: 12 April 2019, 10:28 IST