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Fact Check: Did ex-Pak diplomat claim 300 casualties in Balakot airstrike? Here's the truth

The claim is based on a spliced video clip of the ex-Pakistani diplomat speaking to the Pakistani channel Hum News in December, last year.

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A piece of news has been doing rounds that a former Pakistani diplomat Zafar Hilaly admitted on a news television show that 300 terrorists had died in the Balakot airstrike on February 26, 2019. The claim is false and was based on a spliced video clip of Hilaly speaking to Pakistani channel Hum News in December, last year.

News agency ANI had done the article, titled 'Former Pak diplomat admits 300 casualties in Balakot airstrike by India'. 

The article reads, "In an embarrassing development for Pakistan, a former Pakistani diplomat Zafar Hilaly admitted on a news television show that 300 terrorists had died in the Balakot airstrike on February 26, 2019."

The article also uses a screenshot of the doctored video clip, that was earlier tweeted by DFI Lite (@DfIlite) on December 24, 2020, a day after Hilaly's interaction was uploaded on the official channel of Hum News on YouTube.

DNA looked into the video available on the official HUM News YouTube channel, published on December 23, 2020, and found that Hilaly was criticising India's intention to kill 300 people but he claimed that they failed to do so. He also accused India of bombing a football field and making false claims of killing 300 Pakistanis during the strike.

Fact check

We found the program 'Agenda Pakistan' with Amir Zia, uploaded on YouTube on December 23, 2020, in which Hilaly can be heard speaking from 4 minute 16-second mark.

In the video, Hilaly counters claims about the legitimate target being attacked by an Indian strike. He says, "This is a very powerful aspect that you have raised, lexicon of diplomacy, the language that is used. Surgical strikes, meaning, as you said, limited target. Why limited? You came and according to you, one madrassa, and your intention was to (attack) a madrassa, according to you, where 300 kids were studying, you had to strike there. This means, you had the intention of killing 300 people".

Hilaly then goes on to say, "They were not there, it was wrong, it did not happen, so this means, we (Indian warplanes) strike a football field. Is this even justified? What you did, India, was an act of war. What India had done, by crossing the international boundary, is an act of war, where they had planned to kill at least 300 people. And incidentally since they did not die, they bombed the football field. Our target was different, it was the high command. That was our legitimate target, because they are men of the military. So why didn't we attack there. Because we subconsciously accepted that surgicial strike, limited action (did not happen). O, see see, nobody was dead. Crows and 11 trees were killed. What is this?"

Zafar Hilaly's clarification on Twitter

Zafar Hilaly on Twitter shared the original footage and clarified that he did not make any such claim about Balakot.

The airstrike was in response to the brutal bombing against CRPF troopers in Pulwama which killed 40 and stunned the nation. Pakistan-based Jaish-e- Mohammad (JeM) claimed the responsibility for the February 14 attack, which has been largely condemned by the international community.

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