In a press briefing in Islamabad on Thursday, Pakistan responded to former Indian diplomat Ajay Bisaria's claims regarding the 2019 Balakot strike as "surprising." Mumtaz Zahra Baloch, the spokesperson for the Foreign Office, expressed her astonishment at such statements from a professional diplomat. Baloch admitted to not having read Bisaria's book, only encountering media reports about it.
During the briefing, Baloch asserted that the Pulwama incident was orchestrated as a political maneuver, highlighting what she deemed India's "fascist mentality." She went on to state that the Balakot airstrike became a nightmare for India, emphasizing that the Pakistan Air Force successfully shot down Indian planes during the operation.
Ajay Bisaria, who served as the former high commissioner to Pakistan, detailed his perspective in his upcoming book, "The Anger Management: The Troubled Diplomatic Relationship between India and Pakistan."
According to reports, Bisaria claimed that on the night of February 27, a day after the Balakot airstrike, Pakistan feared an impending attack from India. He further asserted that Prime Minister Imran Khan had made a midnight call to Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi to prevent a military crisis.