India says 300 militants killed in anti-Pakistan air strike

INDIAN jets conducted air strikes against a militant camp in Pakistani territory on Tuesday (26), India's foreign secretary said.

An Indian government source said 300 militants had been killed, but Pakistan denied there had been any casualties.

The airstrikes hit a training camp of Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM), the group that claimed credit for a suicide car bomb attack killed at least 40 Indian paramilitary police in Kashmir on February 14, ratcheting up tensions between the two nuclear armed neighbours.

The action was ordered as India said it had intelligence that Jaish was planning more attacks.

"In the face of imminent danger, a preemptive strike became absolutely necessary," India's foreign secretary Vijay Gokhale told reporters.

"The existence of such training facilities, capable of training hundreds of jihadis could not have functioned without the knowledge of the Pakistani authorities," Gokhale said.

Pakistan denies harbouring JeM, a primarily anti-India group that forged ties with al Qaeda and has been on a UN terror list since 2001.

Gokhale said "a very large number" of militants were killed in a strike on a training base in Balakot, a town in a remote valley in Pakistan's Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, but did not provide a precise figure for the casualties.

The commander of the camp was Maulana Yusuf Azhar, a brother-in-law of JeM leader Masood Azhar, Gokhale said.

Pakistan downplayed the severity of airstrike, saying its own warplanes had chased off the Indian aircraft, which had released their "payload" in a forested area, causing no casualties and no serious material damage.

"Indian aircrafts intruded from Muzaffarabad sector," Pakistani military spokesman Major General Asif Ghafoor said on Twitter early on Tuesday, referring to an area in the Pakistan-held part of Kashmir.

Ghafoor said "facing timely and effective response from Pakistan Air Force", the Indian aircraft "released payload in haste, while escaping, which fell near Balakot. No casualties or damage".

Saying that more information would be released, Ghafoor tweeted four pictures of the alleged site where Indian aircraft dropped a payload near Balakot, purportedly showing a bomb crater in a forest area but no serious damage.

Pakistani villagers in the area where the Indian jets struck said they heard four loud bangs in the early hours of Tuesday but reported only one person was wounded.

"We saw fallen trees and one damaged house, and four craters where the bombs had fallen," said Mohammad Ajmal, a 25-year-old who visited the site.

Pakistan foreign minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi said on Tuesday that "better sense" should prevail, warning India not to challenge Pakistan.

While Gokhale did not comment on the status of the camps, India's minister of state for agriculture, Gajendra Singh Shekhawat, said on Twitter on Tuesday they had been "completely destroyed".

Indian television networks reported the airstrikes took place at 3.30 am.

Mohammed Iqbal, a resident of Mendhar, on the Indian side of the Line of Control (LoC), told Reuters that he heard jets flying through the night.

Balakot is about 50 km (30 miles) from LoC, the ceasefire line that is the de facto border in Kashmir.

Analysts have alleged Pakistani militants have their training camps in the area, although Pakistan has always denied the presence of any such camps.

Pakistani military analyst Hasan Askari called Tuesday's events a "dangerous move".

"If such actions continue, it can escalate into major conflict, which will not serve any purpose but to plunge the region into serious crisis," he said, reported AFP.

Top Indian officials said the strike displayed the country's determination to act against Pakistan -- which New Delhi accuses of using militants as proxies against it.

"They say they want India to bleed with a 1,000 cuts. We say that each time you attack us, be certain we will get back at you, harder and stronger," said foreign affairs minister of state, Vijay Kumar Singh, a former head of the Indian army.

(AFP, Reuters)