Satellite images 'don't show any evidence' of bomb damage to madrasa in Pakistan

High-resolutionsatellite images reviewed by Reuters show that a religiousschool run by Jaish-e-Mohammadin northeastern Pakistanappears to be still standing days after India claimed itswarplanes had hit the Islamist group's training camp on the siteand killed a large number of militants.

The images produced by Planet Labs Inc., a SanFrancisco-based private satellite operator, show at least sixbuildings on the madrasa site on March 4, six days after theairstrike.

Until now, no high-resolution satellite images were publiclyavailable. But the images from Planet Labs, which show detailsas small as 72 centimetres, offer a clearer look at thestructures the Indian government said it attacked.

The image is virtually unchanged from an April 2018satellite photo of the facility. There are no discernible holesin the roofs of buildings, no signs of scorching, blown-outwalls, displaced trees around the madrasa or other signs of an
aerial attack.

The images cast further doubt on statements made over thelast eight days by the Indian government of Prime MinisterNarendra Modi that the raids, early on Feb. 26, had hit all theintended targets at the madrasa site near Jaba village and thetown of Balakot in Pakistan's Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.

No 'evidence of bomb damage'

India's foreign and defence ministries did not reply toemailed questions sent in the past few days seeking comment onwhat is shown in the satellite images and whether they undermineits official statements on the airstrikes.

Jeffrey Lewis, director of the East Asia NonproliferationProject at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies,who has 15 years' experience in analyzing satellite images ofweapons sites and systems, confirmed that the high-resolutionsatellite picture showed the structures in question.

I would expect tosee signs that the buildings had been damaged.Ijust don't see that here.- Jeffrey Lewis, East Asia Nonproliferation Project

"The high-resolution images don't show any evidence of bombdamage," he said. Lewis viewed three other high-resolutionPlanet Labs pictures of the site taken within hours of the imageprovided to Reuters.

The Indian government has not publicly disclosed whatweapons were used in the strike.

Government sources told Reuters last week that 12 Mirage2000 jets carrying 1,000-kilogram bombs carried out theattack. On Tuesday, a defence official said the aircraft used the 907-kilogram Israeli-made SPICE 2000 glide bomb in the strike.

A warhead of that size is meant to destroy hardened targetssuch as concrete shelters.

Pakistan says strike didn't do any damage

Lewis and Dave Schmerler, a senior research associate at theJames Martin Center for Nonproliferation studies who alsoanalyses satellite images, said weapons that large would havecaused obvious damage to the structures visible in the picture.

"If the strike had been successful, given the information wehave about what kind of munitions were used, I would expect tosee signs that the buildings had been damaged," Lewis added. "Ijust don't see that here."

Pakistan has disputed India's account, saying the operationwas a failure that saw Indian jets, under pressure fromPakistani planes, drop their bombs on a largely empty hillside.

"There has been no damage to any infrastructure or humanlife as a result of Indian incursion," Major General AsifGhafoor, the director general of the Pakistan military's presswing, in a statement to Reuters.

"This has been vindicated by both domestic and internationalmedia after visiting the site."

In two visits to the Balakot area in Pakistan by Reutersreporters last Tuesday and Thursday, and extensive interviewswith people in the surrounding area, there was no evidence foundof a destroyed camp or of anyone being killed.

Pollsters say Modistands to benefit

Villagers said there had been a series of huge explosionsbut the bombs appeared to have landed among trees.

On the wooded slopes above Jaba, they pointed to fourcraters and some splintered pine trees, but noted little otherimpact from the blasts that jolted them awake about 3 a.m. onFeb. 26.

"It shook everything," said Abdur Rasheed, a van driver whoworks in the area.

He said there weren't any human casualties: "No one died.Only some pine trees died, they were cut down. A crow alsodied."

Mohammad Saddique from Jaba Basic Health Unit and Zia UlHaq, senior medical officer at Tehsil Headquarters hospital inBalakot said they had seen no casualties.

India must hold a general election by May, and pollsters sayModi and his Hindu nationalist party stand to benefit from hisaggressive response to a suicide bomb attack that killed 40Indian paramilitary police in the disputed Kashmir region onFeb. 14.

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India's Foreign Secretary Vijay Gokhale said on the day ofthe strike that "a very large number of Jaish-e-Mohammadterrorists, trainers, senior commanders, and groups of jihadiswho were being trained for action were "eliminated" inthe attack.

Another senior government official told reporters on thesame day that about 300 militants had been killed. On Sunday thepresident of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party, Amit Shah,put the number killed at more than 250.

The Indian government has not produced evidence that a campwas destroyed or that any militants were killed in the raid.

'Don't want a war for political reasons'

That has prompted some opposition politicians to push formore details.

"We want to know how many people actually died," said MamataBanerjee, the firebrand chief minister of West Bengal state, ina video published by her All India Trinamool Congress party in atweet on Feb. 28. "Where did the bombs fall? Did they actuallyfall in the right place?"

Banerjee, who is seen as a potential prime ministerialcandidate, said that she stood behind the Indian Armed Forces,but that they should be given a chance to speak the truth.

"We don't want a war for political reasons, to win anelection," she said.

Modi has accused the opposition Congress party, and otheropponents such as Banerjee, of helping India's enemies bydemanding evidence of the attacks.

"At a time when our army is engaged in crushing terrorism,inside the country and outside, there are some people within thecountry who are trying to break their morale, which is cheeringour enemy," Modi said at an election rally on Sunday.