Amit Shah is calling the forces liar, nation won't tolerate this: Kejriwal on air strike deaths
New Delhi, Mar 4: Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal Monday said BJP president Amit Shah took a stand contradictory to that of the armed forces over the number of terrorists killed in the pre-dawn airstrikes on terror group Jaish-e-Mohammed's training camps in Pakistan.
On Sunday, Shah said the air strikes killed more than 250 terrorists, while the armed forces have not put out any official figure.
"The armed forces are also saying this. Amit Shah is saying that the armed forces are lying, 250 (terrorists) were killed. Amit Shah is calling the armed forces a liar. The country will not tolerate this under any circumstances," Kejriwal tweeted in Hindi, referring to a news report which quotes Union minister SS Ahluwalia as saying that the purpose of the strike was to send a message and not to kill.
In another tweet, the Delhi chief minister said the whole country stands with the armed forces while the BJP stands against them.
"The armed forces cannot lie but the BJP is lying. The whole country stands with the armed forces but BJP stands against them," Kejriwal said.
At an event in Ahmedabad, Shah had said: "After Pulwama attack, everyone was thinking that we can't do surgical strike so what will happen...But Narendra Modi government, on the 13th day (after the attack), conducted airstrikes and killed more than 250 terrorists."
At a press conference this morning, IAF chief B S Dhanoa declined to comment on the death toll in the Balakot strike, saying it was for the government to provide details on the number of terrorists killed.
"We don't count human casualties. We count what targets we have hit or not hit," he said.
The bomb damage assessment that is done post a mission only calculates the target that has been hit or not hit, the air chief noted.
"We can't count how many people have died. That depends on how many people were there," Dhanoa said, adding that a statement on the number of terrorists killed will be made by the government.
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Air India's A350 aircraft enroute to London faces tech issue; returns to Delhi
New Delhi (PTI): Air India's A350 aircraft enroute to London Heathrow returned to the national capital due to a technical issue on Thursday afternoon after being airborne for nearly seven hours.
The same A350-900 aircraft VT-JRF had faced a technical issue on March 15, following which the plane operating the flight from New York to Delhi was diverted to the Irish town of Shannon, sources said.
An Air India spokesperson said its flight AI111, operating from Delhi to London on Thursday, made a precautionary air-return to the national capital following a suspected technical issue.
"The aircraft landed safely and consistent with Air India's high safety standards, it is currently subject to extensive technical evaluations, which will require additional time to complete," the spokesperson said in a statement.
According to the sources, noises were heard in the aircraft following which it was diverted.
The spokesperson also regretted the inconvenience caused to the passengers due to the unforeseen situation and said the airline was making every effort to ensure passengers are able to continue their journey to London at the earliest.
Details about the number of passengers onboard could not be ascertained.
The aircraft operating the flight AI111 was airborne for around four hours before the decision was taken to divert the plane when it was in the Saudi Arabia airspace. In total, the plane was airborne for nearly seven hours before landing back in the national capital, as per information available on flight tracking website Flightradar24.com.
The flight had taken off from Delhi around 6 am on Thursday and landed back at about 12.30 pm.
Air India started operating A350-900 planes from January 2024.
