We hit the targets says Indian Air Force Chief on Pakistan air strikes

Reuters -  Indian Air Force chief on Monday (March 04) said the fighter planes had hit the target given to them inside Pakistan but added that he cannot give the number of casualties as it was for the government to do so. Air Chief Marshal B.S. Dhanoa, who was addressing a news conference in southern Coimbatore city, said he was not in a position to clarify the number of human causalities as that depended on the number of people being present inside the selected target. The comments assume significance after doubts were raised that there were many casualties in the attack that stoked tensions between the nuclear-armed rivals. Indian warplanes carried out air strikes on Tuesday inside northeast Pakistan's Balakot on what New Delhi called militant camps. Islamabad denied any such camps existed, as did local villagers in the area when Reuters visited. Dhanoa also announced that India will induct French-made Rafale combat jets in September. India has ordered 36 planes from Dassault Aviation as part of a modernization programme of the air force which is phasing out its Soviet-era planes.