NEW DELHI: The head of the Indian Air Force (IAF), Air Chief Marshal B.S. Dhanoa, distanced himself on Monday from claims by Indian TV channels and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) president Amit Shah that a recent air raid on Balakot had killed hundreds of anti-India militants.

Mr Dhanoa also headed off a query about alleged downing of a Pakistani warplane by the IAF on Feb 27, saying that the operations were still on. “Air Force is not in a position to clarify how many people were inside. We don’t count human casualties, we count what targets have we hit or not hit,” he told reporters.

He said the IAF could not count how many people were killed in the operation. “That depends on how many people were there (at the facility),” he added.

Mr Dhanoa said the bomb damage assessment post the mission calculated the number of targets their fighter pilots were able to hit or not.

Opposition keeps up attack on government, questions PM Modi’s silence about air strike

He rejected doubts that the IAF had not hit its targets at Balakot, saying: “The target has been clearly amplified by the foreign secretary in his statement. If we plan to hit the target, we hit the target. Otherwise, why would he have responded? If we had dropped bombs in the jungle, there is no need for him to respond.”

The air chief said he was not in a position to update on the situation at the border since there were “ongoing operations”.

Responding to an earlier query on how the MiG-21 Bison had shot down a Pakistan Air Force’s F16 jet too, he said there were ongoing operations. He further said the MiG-21 Bison was in the inventory of the IAF. “So why not use it? It is capable, has been upgraded. It is not the old MiG-21. It has got a better weapon systems, better radars, better air-to-air missile, radar warning receiver, whatever it takes to make it a third generation to 3.5 generation aircraft. We fight with whatever aircraft we have in our inventory,” he said.

The opposition kept up its attack on the government on Monday. Senior Congress leader P. Chidambaram and party leader Navjot Singh Sidhu slammed the government over claims on the number of alleged terrorists killed in the Balakot air strike by the IAF.

At an election rally in Ahmedabad, BJP president Amit Shah had claimed that “more than 250 terrorists were killed in the air strike on a terrorist training camp last week”.

Mr Sidhu, a Punjab minister, said in a tweet: “300 terrorist dead, Yes or No?

What was the purpose then? Were you uprooting terrorist or trees? Was it an election gimmick? Deceit possesses our land in guise of fighting a foreign enemy. Stop politicising the army, it is as sacred as the state.”

Mr Chidambaram said that as a proud citizen he was prepared to believe the government, but “if we want the world to believe, government must make the effort, not indulge in opposition bashing”.

“IAF Vice Air Marshal declined to comment on casualties. MEA statement said there were no civilian or military casualties. So, who put out the number of casualties as 300-350?” he said on Twitter.

He also questioned Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s silence about the air strike. Stating that Congress president Rahul Gandhi was the first to salute the IAF for its splendid achievement, he asked: “Why has Mr Modi forgotten that?”

Published in Dawn, March 5th, 2019