India's cross-LoC airstrike targetting a Jaish-e-Mohammad training camp damaged dozens of pine trees near the Pakistani town of Balakot, a Pakistani Minister has claimed. Now Pakistan plans to lodge a complaint against India at the United Nations, accusing it of “eco-terrorism”, a media report said Friday.
Pakistani Climate Change Minister Malik Amin Aslam said Indian jets bombed a “forest reserve” and the government was undertaking an environmental impact assessment, which will be the basis a complaint at the United Nations and other forums, Reuters reported.
The cross-LoC bombing by Indian fighter jets on Tuesday in Balakot brought the two neighbours to their biggest stand-off in years. The United States, UAE and other global powers have been mediating to de-escalate tensions between the arch-rivals who have fought three wars since their independence from British rule in 1947.
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Indian fighter jets on Tuesday bombed a hilly forest area near the northern Pakistani town of Balakot, about 40 km (25 miles) from India’s border in Jammu and Kashmir. New Delhi said it had destroyed a militant training camp on the hilltop and killed hundreds of “terrorists”.
Pakistan has denied there were any terror camps in the area and locals said only one elderly villager was hurt.
“What happened over there is environmental terrorism,” Aslam told Reuters, adding that dozens of pine trees had been felled. “There has been serious environmental damage.”
Two Reuters reporters who visited the site of the bombings, where four large craters could be seen, said up to 15 pine trees had been brought down by the blasts. Villagers dismissed Indian claims that hundreds of militants were killed.
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The United Nations states that “destruction of the environment, not justified by military necessity and carried out wantonly, is clearly contrary to existing international law”, according to the U.N. General Assembly resolution 47/37.
Tensions have escalated between India and Pakistan in the wake of the Pulwama attack claimed by Pakistan-based terror group Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM). Forty CRPF soldiers were killed in the suicide attack in Jammu and Kashmir.
India carried out air strikes against the biggest training camp of JeM in Balakot. In the operation, a very large number of JeM terrorists, trainers, senior commanders and groups of jihadis who were being trained for suicide attacks were eliminated.
Pakistan on Wednesday shot down an Indian fighter jet over Pakistani air space and arrested a pilot, who is to be released on Friday.
