Chennai: Terror camps in Balakot are active again, Army chief Bipin Rawat said on Monday, almost seven months after the Indian Air Force destroyed the complex run by the Jaish-e-Mohammad in retaliation for the Pulwama terror attack.
General Rawat added that close to 500 infiltrators are waiting to infiltrate into India.
"Balakot has been reactivated by Pakistan very recently. That shows that Balakot has been affected. It had been damaged and destroyed. And that is why people have got away from there and now it has been reactivated," he told reporters at the Officers Training Academy.
"...some action had been taken by Indian Air Force and now they have got the people back there," he said.
A fleet of IAF jets had destroyed terror launch pads in Balakot in a pre-dawn aerial attack carried out on February 27. During the aerial confrontation, Wing Commander Abhinandan Varthaman brought down a Pakistani F-16 but was taken prisoner near the Line of Control (LoC). He was later release by Islamabad.
Pakistan had also decided to restrict access to its airspace after the Balakot strikes, resulting in a loss of 8.5 billion Pakistani rupees.
The airspace was opened in July, but Pakistani leaders have in recent weeks given statements on airspace closure following India’s move to scrap special status for Jammu and Kashmir.
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