We don’t count human casualties: IAF Chief BS Dhanoa

Side stepping a raging debate on the number of casualties in the Balakot strike, IAF chief BS Dhanoa on Monday said it is for the government to provide details on the terrorists killed and the Air Force only sees if a target has been hit or not.

The Air Force doesn’t count human casualties, Dhanoa said as the figure of how many terrorists were killed in the February 26 attack on a Jaish in Balakot in Pakistan’s Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province remained unclear.

“We don’t count human casualties. We count what targets we have hit or not hit,” Dhanoa said in his first comments since the events of last week, when escalating India-Pakistan tensions led to aerial combat and Wing Commander Abhinandan Varthaman being in captivity in Pakistan for almost three days. The air chief told reporters the Indian Air Force pilot would fly a fighter jet if he was fit. “We don’t take chances with the medical fitness of a pilot,” he said at a press conference. Varthaman, who ejected from his MiG21 Bison on February 27, was captured by Pakistan and released on March 1.


The bomb damage assessment that is done post a mission only calculates the target that has been hit or not hit, the air chief noted. Asked about reports suggesting that the bombs were dropped away from the target, Dhanoa said: “Our report says otherwise.”