by Rahul Shivshankar

On the back of evidence collected to assess damage from the air raid on the Balakot JeM training facility, the Indian defence establishment has concluded that when PM Modi says ‘Hum Ghuskey Marenge’ he wasn't wrong.

In the wake of India’s air strikes on the Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) facility in Balakot, the foreign press has been on a fact-finding mission of its own. Several leading foreign publications have aggressively debunked claims made by India’s Air Force (IAF) and the Ministry of External Affairs that the military action undertaken by stealth in the early hours of the 26th of February was a glowing success. Reams have been written using purported high-resolution private satellite images scanned by foreign correspondents to establish India’s Air Force missed the mark. These articles quote digital forensic experts claiming that the private satellite images show that structures that were supposed to have been destroyed are still standing and bear no evidence of the fury that supposedly decimated them. The articles have provided fodder to several Opposition parties who claim the NDA and the BJP conducted a ‘farcical strike’ to score electoral brownie points barely 45 days before make-or-make general elections.

This writer and a colleague have had face-to-face meetings with highly placed sources in the government and the Air Force who have conducted a bomb damage assessment in the days after the Balakot operation. On the back of evidence collected to assess the damage from the air raid on the Balakot JeM training facility, these officials have concluded that when Prime Minister Modi says ‘Hum Ghuskey Marenge’ he accurately described the battle cry of India’s air warriors on that triumphant day. Here, in short, are some of the findings of the bomb damage assessment report that have been shared with TIMES NOW.


For those of you who are wondering why the bomb damage assessment report is making so much of the ‘holes’ that were spotted in the Satellite pictures, here is a representative picture from a de-classified test of the SPICE-2000 missile in Pokhran. The holes are clearly visible in the roof of the building that was selected as a target. Their presence on the roof of the target points to a successful impact. The report prepared after the bomb damage assessment team conducted after the Balakot air raid points to the presence of similar holes on the roof of the buildings that were targeted in the JeM training facility. 

Spice 2000
The penetration point on this test structure is virtually a pin-point to scale

Pakistan has also claimed that the Indian Air Force jets dropped bombs in open areas in a hurry because they were chased out by ever-vigilant Pakistan Air Force (PAF) combat air patrols (CAPS). But this writer was presented with evidence that clearly revealed that no Pakistan Air Force interceptors were present in the area as the operation was a tactical surprise. As such, therefore, the Indian Air Force jets had no reason to prematurely abort the mission and depart Pakistan’s air space. The parallel decoy operation by Indian Air Force jets ensured that by the time Pakistan scrambled its own jets the bombing raid was more-or-less over and the PAF jets got no closer than within 150 km of the Indian air package.

The Air Force, of course, will not release the proof. That decision will ultimately be a political one. In other words, the proof will be made public only when the NDA can make adequate political or diplomatic capital out of it. But given that the Prime Minister’s priority at present is to win the elections and return to power, don’t be too surprised if the NDA were to release the proof just a few days before the first phase of polling.