by G Hari Kumar

Background

Right now its a win-win situation for the government and for the billion plus people of this nation, however, this is not true for the score of detractors desperately trying to cast dark clouds over the spectacular IAF airstrikes success on JeM terror camps deep inside Pakistan's bowels by expounding quack theories about the effectiveness of the strikes. Opposition parties are falling back on obscure reports published in foreign newspapers with clear vested interests to undermine the unprecedented achievements of the government of the day.

Absolving Pakistan's ploy of discrediting the surgical strikes 2.0 is a foregone conclusion, which deservedly should be a natural progression to be scorned upon as far as we Indians are concerned, contrarily, it is very painful to note the opposition parties towing this line and questioning the claims made by the government and even shockingly of the armed forces. Such is the state of affairs of Indian politics today, these mechanisation haven't popped up unforeseen or spontaneously but by clever and cunning design to malign the concerted efforts by PM Modi to eradicate the menace of terrorism in our land. There is underlying truth in why this motley crowd is resorting such abjuring accusations, some of the key opposition leaders are under the scanner for multiple scams and the general panic among them is that PM Modi will continue the strong prosecution processes underway to prosecute the corrupt if he comes to power again.

Pakistan, is hiding its face on the global arena after multiple humiliation meted out by the current government. The latest being the snub Pakistan received at the OIC summit in Abu Dhabi.

A Quackery Report

TheWire as we all know has no love lost for PM Modi or the government he his heading. A constant barrage of recrimination is the norm for this rag. In this context, a rather amusing article emerged in TheWire.in questioning the damage assessment achieved of the airstrike conducted by the IAF against JeM terrorists in Pakistan. The article purports the fact that the airstrikes was an abject failure and did not serve the purpose for which it was actually intended. This prevarication was supported by satellite imagery from Planet Labs Inc by the writer, who incidentally is a a researcher at ASPI’s International Cyber Policy Centre, Australia. The writer goes on to say the strikes in Pakistan were designed by the present government primarily to placate a domestic audience for electoral gains.

The IAF had earlier notified to the nation in a joint press briefing of the armed forces that the Indian Air Force on Thursday said that its air strikes on Jaish-e-Mohammed's training camp in Pakistan's Balakot were successful and had destroyed the intended targets. Should we believe this defence analyst or our armed forces? That's the moot question the reader must consider!

It is evident from the author's quaky report that the he knows next to nothing about the ordnance used by the IAF to strike these terror camps. Here are the solid reasons to debunk this fallacious and mischievous contentions:

Pakistan is never going to acknowledge, admit or disclose the number of terrorists killed in the airstrike because as history speaks for itself they have never taken back either terrorists not their army soldiers killed during Indian action, be it after the Mumbai attacks or after the Kargil conflict. So nobody is going to get any semblance of verifiable data from them. However, as per a latest report, eyewitnesses present at the site of India's 26 February bomb strikes against a Jaish-e-Muhammad base say they saw up to 35 bodies being transported out of the the site by ambulance hours after the attack. The dead, they recounted, included 12 men who were said to have been sleeping in a single temporary shack, and several individuals who had earlier served in Pakistan's military

Sources have said that intelligence agencies have evidence, in the form of imagery from Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR), showing that the four buildings, identified as targets, were hit by five Spice-2000 precision-guided munition (PGM) fired from IAF’s Mirage-2000 fighter jets

The S-2000 combines the advantages of satellite guidance and those of Electro-optical guidance into one bomb – reducing the amount of munitions (and hence, payload) that an aircraft has to carry for a given strike mission, increasing its combat radius and manoeuvrability

This weapon has day, night and adverse weather capability because of its dual infrared IR/CCD-TV seeker and advanced scene-matching algorithms. At close-in ranges, the weapon recognises the target and correlates it with the intelligence imagery stored into memory. This capability translates into the ability to overcome target location error and GPS jamming

The Spice-2000 bomb is camera operated and has real time manoeuvre and response abilities when facing fixed and mobile targets

Authorities both in the IAF and in Rafael Advanced Defence Systems testify that the weapon development process that lasted three years, succeeded by means of cooperation and discussion between the two sides. Along the way, many tests were performed and different considerations were made in accordance with the operational requirements and needs

The buildings were targeted by the IAF’s Israeli Spice-2000 bombs. These are not meant to destroy the building but only to cause damage after they enter a building

Military experts have clarified said that if only S-2000 PGM were fired, there is no possibility of craters or sheared trees. The PGM would go inside the earth and then explode, which would create a mound of earth instead

The S-2000 is a highly accurate, jammer-proof bomb which works precisely even under heavy cloud cover. The weapon has a range of approximately 100 kilometres with less than 3 meters Circular Error Probable (CEP) and can hit ground target with pinpoint accuracy

The bomb first penetrates through the roof, then enters the building and explodes after a delay. It is meant to hit the command and control centres and does not destroy the building. The software has to be programmed with the type of roof – its thickness, material of construction etc. – and that, accordingly, sets the delay period for the precision guided munition

As per an Indian Express report the government official said that these terror camp buildings had roofs made of corrugated galvanised iron (CGI) sheets and the SAR imagery shows that on the first day, these roofs had gone missing. These CGI roofs were repaired by the Pakistani army after two days, making it difficult to assess the full damage by technical intelligence

Conclusion

As per another report in BusinessToday, Pakistan was trying to hide dead bodies of terrorists in Balakot.

The terror camp at Balakot was headed by Maulana Yousuf Azhar alias Mohammed Salim, Ustad Ghouri, the brother-in-law of Jaish-e-Mohammad chief Masood Azhar, who was reportedly killed in the airstrike. If Pakistan wants a face saver to debunk India's contention then all it has to do is bring Ghouri into the media forefront.

Lastly, it is for the Indian political leadership to decide if it wants to release the reported imagery and make public what is a ‘classified’ capability.

Bottom Line
India must stop being a peace-loving, peace-spewing nation ready to be provoked, trampled, humiliated and killed!

Hari is a historian, author, thinker, military enthusiast & a cyber geek. Views expressed are of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of IDN. IDN does not assume any responsibility or liability for the same