New Delhi, Jul 11 (UNI) Former United States National Security Advisor John Bolton on Saturday said at the time of Balakot airstrikes, India acted in self defence and its actions were appropriate.
“My assessment was, and I said publicly at the time and told Ajit (Doval) as well, India had acted in self-defence and the actions were appropriate”, the former US NSA told Wion in an interview.
The Balakot airstrike was conducted by India in February 2019 in response to Pulwama terror attack by Pakistan based terror group Jaish-e-Mohammad in which over 40 CRPF personnel were killed. India had characterised it to be a preemptive strike directed against a terrorist training camp in Balakot. The government had then said that a very large number of terrorist were killed in the strike.
Mr Bolton said that the skirmish between India and Paksitan at that time could have been very serious had responsible steps not been taken for de-escalation.
“We think there were responsible steps to de-escalate what could have been a very serious crisis,” he said.
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