New Delhi: Amid doubts raised by the opposition over the number of terrorists killed in Indian Air Force (IAF) strike in the terror den of Jaish-e-Mohammad chief Azhar Masood in Balakot area of Pakistan’s Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, former Army chief and Union minister of state for external affairs, Gen VK Singh on Wednesday drew parallels between terrorists and mosquitoes while responding to the opposition’s continuous hammering on the issue.
In a tweet in Hindi, he said at 3.30 am, there were too many mosquitoes, so he used a repellent spray “Hit” to kill them.
“Now should I count how many mosquitoes were killed or sleep peacefully,” the Minister of State for External Affairs tweeted.
The opposition, including former Finance Minister P Chidambaram and Congress leaders Kapil Sibal, Manish Tewari, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, have raised questions over the government’s claim about the death toll in Pakistan in the February 26 IAF air strike.
The IAF fighter jets had hit the biggest terror training camp of the Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) in Pakistan within a fortnight after 40 Central Reserve Police Force troopers were killed in the terror attack in Jammu and Kashmir’s Pulwama.
Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) chief Amit Shah claimed that over 250 terrorists were killed in the air strike.
IAF chief Air Chief Marshal BS Dhanoa on Monday said his force does not count human casualties but the IAF had successfully hit its target.
The analogy of Singh came a day after he attacked the opposition for demanding the casualty figures saying it was not “a game of marbles” where exact scores can be kept.
On Tuesday, he defended Shah’s claim that more than 250 terrorists were killed in the IAF action that came 12 days after the Pulwama attack, saying that Shah meant that “at least these many had been killed” in the air strike.