Govt rejected IAF's plan to hit terror camps in Pak post Parliament, 26/11 attacks: Dhanoa

Former Air Force chief BS Dhanoa on Saturday said that the government had rejected the plan to hit terror camps in Pakistan after the 2001 Parliament and 2008 Mumbai attacks.

When asked about his earlier statement on the same subject, Dhanoa told that the Indian Air Force (IAF) had started working on a plan to strike terrorist camps across the border in Pakistan after the car bombing of Jammu and Kashmir Assembly in 2001.

"After the J-K Assembly attack in 2001, the IAF started planning how to strike terrorist camps if there was any large-scale terrorist attack in India. This proposal was put to the government twice," Dhanoa said.

"It was put to the government after the Parliament attack, and again when the government asked about it," he said.

He said that then IAF chief was ready to strike terrorist camps located inside Pakistan Occupied Kashmir (PoK) after the Mumbai attacks, adding that the force then had a technical edge over the Pakist air force.

"IAF has always been ready (to carry out a) strike and we have the strike capability. National leadership had to make a decision," he said.

Dhanoa said that the IAF carried out an airstrike in Pakistan's Balakot after the Pulwama terror attack after the leadership took a decision about it.

"This time, national leadership took the decision and we carried out," he said.

Dhanoa was the air chief between December 31, 2016, and September 30, 2019.

( With inputs from ANI )