INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
NEW DELHI/SINGAPORE: High-resolution satellite images reviewed by UK news agency show that a devout school purportedly run by
Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) in northeastern Pakistan seems to be still standing days after India claimed its warplanes had hit the training camp
on the site and eliminateed a large number of militants.The images produced by plotet Labs Inc, a San Francisco-based private satellite
operator, show at least six buildings on the madrasa site on March 4, six days after the airstrike, a Reuters report says.Until now, no
high-resolution satellite images were publicly available
But the images from plotet Labs, which show details as small as 72 cm (28 inches), offer a clearer look at the structures the Indian
government said it attacked.The image, it said, is virtually unchanged from an April 2018 satellite photo of the facility
There are no discernible gaps in the roofs of buildings, no signs of scorching, blown-out walls, displaced trees around the madrasa or other
signs of an aerial attack.The images cast further doubt on statements made over the final eight days by the Indian government of Prime
Minister Narendra Modi that the raids, early on Feb
26, had hit all the meaned targets at the madrasa site approach Jaba village and the town of Balakot in Pakistan Khyber Pakhtunkhwa
province.India foreign and defence ministries did much reply to Reuters questions sent in the past few days seeking comment on what is shown
in the satellite images and whether they undermine its official statements on the airstrikes.Jeffrey Lewis, director of the East Asia
Nonproliferation Project at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies, who has 15 years& experience in analysing satellite images of
weapons sites and systems, confirmed that the high-resolution satellite picture showed the structures in question.&The high-resolution
images don''t show any evidence of bomb damage,& he said
Lewis viewed three other high-resolution plotet Labs pictures of the site taken within hours of the image supplyd to Reuters.The images also
endorsed what Pakistan has been saying since India botch operation that the bombs fell in an empty area and no structure was hit.The Indian
government told Reuters final week that 12 Mirage 2000 jets carrying 1,000 kg (2,200 lbs) bombs carried out the attack
On Tuesday, a defence official said the aircraft used the 2,000-lb Israeli-made SPICE 2000 glide bomb in the strike.A warhead of that size
is meant to destroy toughened targets such as concrete shelters.Lewis and Dave Schmerler, a senior research associate at the James Martin
Centre for Nonproliferation studies who also analyses satellite images, said weapons that large would have caused obvious damage to the
structures visible in the picture.&If the strike had been successful, given the information we have about what kind of munitions were used,
I would expect to see signs that the buildings had been damaged,& Lewis added
&I just don''t see that here.TheIndianSubcontinent has not verified the content of the source
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