Pakistan reactivated Balakot terror camp: Army chief Bipin Rawat

Army chief General Bipin Rawat on Monday said Pakistan has reactivated Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM)’s Balakot terror camp, which was bombed by Indian Air Force in February, and suggested that India may take new measures to hit back at such sites.

“...Balakot has been reactivated by Pakistan very recently,” Rawat told reporters at the Officers Training Academy in Chennai. HT on Sunday reported that JeM has revived the camp and is training 40 terrorists to carry out attacks in Jammu and Kashmir and elsewhere in India in the garb of a new name.

Indian fighters flew deep into Pakistan to bomb the facility at Balakot in Pakistan’s Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province on February 26 in response to the February 14 car bombing in Jammu and Kashmir’s Pulwama that killed 40 troopers of the Central Reserve Police Force. JeM claimed responsibility for the attack, escalating tensions between India and Pakistan.

Rawat said Balakot camp was destroyed by the cross-border strike. “That is why people have gotten away from there and now it has been reactivated,” he said.

“Why must you expect a repeat of a similar thing. Earlier we did something, then we did Balakot. Why must we repeat?” he said when asked if a repeat strike may be expected. On the militant infiltration, Rawat said: “The numbers keep fluctuating, but I would say... there are at least 500 people who are waiting to infiltrate...”

(With inputs from Agencies)