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IAF Doesn't Count Casualties, Says Air Chief Marshal BS Dhanoa On Balakot

Dhanoa said the casualty figure in air strike will be given by government.
Hindustan Times via Getty Images

Air Chief Marshal BS Dhanoa on Monday said that the Indian Air Force (IAF) is not in a postilion to clarify the number of casualties in the Balakot strike. “We don’t count human casualties, we count what targets we have hit or not,” he added.

Dhanoa said the casualty figure in the air strike will be given by the government.

Earlier, Air Vice Marshal RGK Kapoor had also said that they were “successful in what we intended to destroy”. He had also refused to give details of the number of terrorists killed in the airstrike.

“There is credible evidence that we destroyed targets in strike on JeM camp, premature to give number of casualties,” Kapoor had said.

He had said that it was up to political leadership to decide on releasing evidence of the success of the Balakot strike.

His statement comes a day after Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) chief Amit Shah announced that “more than 250” terrorists were killed in the airstrike.

Dhanoa also said that Wing Commander Abhinandan Varthaman’s medical fitness will decide when he returns to flying. “We don’t take chances with medical fitness of pilot; if Abhinandan is fit he will fly fighter jet,” Dhanoa said.

All required treatment will be given to Wing Commander Abhinandan, he added.

Varthaman was captured by the Pakistani Army after his MiG-21 Bison jet was hit. He returned to India on Friday night.

(With PTI inputs)

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This article exists as part of the online archive for HuffPost India, which closed in 2020. Some features are no longer enabled. If you have questions or concerns about this article, please contact indiasupport@huffpost.com.