NEW DELHI: Within hours of Indian Air Force (IAF)’s air strike on Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) madrasa in Balakot on February 26, Pakistani Army evacuated students from the area and kept them at a safe house for some days before sending them back to their homes, reports a national media.
The report quotes a relative of a madrasa student as saying that Pakistani Army soldiers were providing security to the facility for a week before the strike took place. According to the report, the student narrated to his relatives that he and others who were sleeping in the same room were woken up by a 'massive explosion' in the wee hours of February 26.
“The sound was not far away, it was quite close,” the relative told the reporters, remembering the student’s account.
However, they went back to sleep after hearing nothing again.
Later, when they woke up, soldiers asked them to leave the place. They were taken to another location and kept there for two-three days, the relative said.
“He said there were quite a lot of people at the madrasa but not all of them went to the safe house. It was him and some others of the same age group. He does not know what happened to the others or where the explosion took place,” the relative added. The report was not confirmed by any official authorities.