New Delhi:
Senior Congress leader and former chief minister Digvijaya Singh’s remark on Pulwama terror attack has sparked a massive political controversy. In a series of tweets, Singh had asked Prime minister Narendra Modi to explain the casualties in the Balakot air strike. But what caused the row was him terming the February 14 attack as an ‘incident.’ In his tweet, Singh had said that the airstrike after Pulwama ‘durghatna’ or accident is being questioned by the Western media. The comment elicited angry responses from senior BJP ministers. “With due respect, I would like to ask Digvijaya Singh Ji, was Rajiv Gandhi's assassination an accident or a terror incident," asked Union Minister VK Singh.
Apart from Singh, another senior BJP minister had slammed Digvijaya Singh over the attack. Prakash Javadekar said that, “I don’t know what has happened to Congress? The party is going against nation’s sentiments. They are falsifying armed forces’ information. There is no such democracy, where people don’t believe the armed forces.”
Another Union Minister Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi slammed Opposition for demanding proof of the airstrike and said that the spirits of all the Jaish-e-Mohammed terrorists killed in Pakistan have entered the bodies of the party leaders. That’s why they are behaving in a strange way. Joining the chorus demanding airstrike proof, the CPI has questioned BJP president Amit Shah's claim of 250 casualties in the Indian Air Force's air strike on terror camps in Balakot. CPI leader D Raja said the Prime Minister cannot accused the Opposition for demoralising the armed forces as "it is him (Modi), the BJP and the RSS which are dragging the defence forces into 'dirty politics' and 'controversies'."
Even as politics goes on over the February 26 air strike, Jaish-e-Mohammed chief Masood Azhar’s brother Maulana Ammar has blown the lid on Pakistan’s lie about Indian Air Force’s air strike in Balakot. In an audio message, which was posted on Twitter by Pakistani journalist Taha Siddiqui, the Jaish terrorist brazenly admits that Indian jets hit a school of Jihad in Balakot. A Times of India report said that the voice in the audio clip is that of Maulana Ammar. He was reportedly addressing a gathering in Peshawar on February 28, two days after the surgical strike. The Jaish commander also said that by returning Indian Air Force pilot Abhinandan Varthaman, Pakistan has turned its ‘victory into defeat.’
