New Delhi: Hours after reports of a former Pakistani diplomat admitting that 300 terrorists were killed in India's air strike at Balakot in 2019 hit the headlines, fact-check website 'Boom Live' termed the news report as a manipulated one.
Several websites, including Odisha TV, carried the report by news agency ANI on former Pakistani diplomat "Zafar Hilaly" saying during a debate on a Pakistani news channel that 300 terrorists had died in the Balakot airstrike carried out by India on February 26, 2019.
As per the report, "The admission by the former Pakistani diplomat, who regularly takes the Pakistan Army side in TV debates, goes against the zero casualties claim made by Islamabad at that time."
"India crossed the international border and did an act of war in which at least 300 were reported dead. Our target was different from theirs. We targeted their high command. That was our legitimate target because they are men of the military. We subconsciously accepted that a surgical strike -- a limited action -- did not result in any casualty. Now we have subconsciously told them that, whatever they will do, we'll do only that much and won't escalate," ANI quoted "Zafar Hilaly" as saying.
However, a fact-check reportedly conducted by 'Boom Live' found that the comments were of ex-diplomat Zafar Hilaly were misreported. Hilaly had said, "India ne jo kiya, international boundary ko cross karke ek act of war. Jisme kam se kam 300 logo ko unhone marna tha. (What India did was an act of war. By crossing the international boundary India committed an act of war in which they intended to kill at least 300 people)."
Soon, Boom Live clarified that a version of the video which was posted on Twitter had an abrupt cut and the word "marna (to kill)" sounds as if Zafar Hilaly said "mara (killed)".
Meanwhile, the news has been removed by websites.