Balakot Strike Death Count: Union Minister VK Singh shuts down detractors with 'mosquito' tweet

Amid ongoing debate over the number of terrorists killed in the Balakot air strike, Union Minister VK Singh took to Twitter and shut down the detractors with sarcastic ‘mosquito’ tweet. Singh, who is also the former Army chief, on Wednesday wrote, “"Last night at 3.30 am there were too many mosquitoes, so I used HIT. Now should I start counting how many mosquitoes I killed or should I go back to sleep?" The cryptic tweet comes on a day when a Reuters report has claim that satellite images taken hours after the February 26 air strike show that the six buildings reportedly destroyed in the aerial attack are still standing. 

 

रात ३.३० बजे मच्छर बहुत थे,

तो मैंने HIT मारा।

अब मच्छर कितने मारे, ये गिनने बैठूँ,

या आराम से सो जाऊँ? #GenerallySaying

— Vijay Kumar Singh (@Gen_VKSingh) March 6, 2019

Earlier on Tuesday, Union Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman finally broke her silence on the Balakot air strike and said that the Indian Air Force strike that destroyed a Jaish-e-Mohammad terror camp was "not a military action" as there was no civilian casualty. She also said Foreign Secretary Vijay Gokhale had not given any casualty figure in his media briefing after the air strike and only gave a statement which is the government's "position".

Gokhale has said the non-military and pre-emptive strike on the Jaish-e-Mohammed training camp killed a "very large number" of terrorists, trainers and senior commanders. Sitharaman's remarks come amid some Opposition leader demanding evidence about the number of terrorists killed in the air strike.

Earlier, an Indian Express report had said that at least four buildings inside the Jaish-e-Mohammad training camp in Balakot were hit by Indian missiles. The Indian Express quoted a source as saying 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 S-2000 precision-guided munition (PGM) fired from IAF’s Mirage-2000 fighter jets. The missiles hit inside the campus of Madrasa Taleem-ul-Quran run by Jaish which is located on the same ridge line as the hilltop, a few hundred metres to the east, according to the Indian Express report. Earlier, Pakistan confirmed that the area was hit by IAF jets. However, it has so far denied any damage.