CAA as a Stand Alone Act

A primary pro-CAA argument has been to consider it as a stand alone Act and NOT couple it with NRC. So let's look at CAA and understand the changes brought in. Post that let's look at the feasibility and implement-ability of CAA as a stand alone Act

2 main changes in Citizenship Act based on CAA

• Definition of an illegal migrant - The parent act defined an illegal migrant as
1. A foreigner who enter India without a valid passport or any travel documents
2. A foreigner with passport and travel documents who overstays his allowed period of stay

The Amendment added an exception....

1. A foreigner who enter India without a valid passport or any travel documents
2. A foreigner with passport and travel documents who overstays his allowed period of stay
3. Provided that any person belonging to Hindu, Sikh, Buddhist, Jain, Parsi or Christian community from Afghanistan, Bangladesh or Pakistan, who entered into India on or before the 31st day of December, 2014 shall not be treated as illegal migrant

• Citizenship by Naturalisation.- As per the Original Act,
• This is applicable ONLY to Foreign Nationals
• This is NOT applicable to illegal migrants
• Eligibility - He/she has either resided in India throughout the period of 12 months immediately preceding the date of the application. During the fourteen years immediately preceding the said period of twelve months, he/ she has resided in India for periods amounting in the aggregate to not less than 11 years.
• Documents Needed - Copy of Valid Foreign Passport AND Copy of Indian Residential Permit/ Long term Visa

The Amendment made the option of Naturalisation (Certificate of Registration or Certificate of naturalisation) available to any person with or without travel documents belonging to Hindu, Sikh, Buddhist, Jain, Parsi or Christian community from Afghanistan, Bangladesh or Pakistan, who entered into India on or before the 31st day of December, 2014

• Eligibility for Certificate - He/she has either resided in India throughout the period of 12 months immediately preceding the date of the application. During the fourteen years immediately preceding the said period of twelve months, he/ she has resided in India for periods amounting in the aggregate to not less than 5 years
• Documents Needed - ?????????????? As per the amendment, the government has the power to make rules regarding the conditions, restrictions and manner for granting certificate of registration or certificate of naturalisation for these people

Once he/she gets the Certificate of Registration/ Naturalisation, the amendment enables them to be deemed as a citizen of India from his/her date of entry if he/she fulfills any of conditions mentioned in Image 1 OR all the conditions mentioned in the Image 2. For the following conditions, person is of Indian origin if he or either of his parents are born in undivided India after 15th August, 1947
The person who makes the application for citizenship under this section shall not be deprived of his rights and privileges to which he was entitled on the date of receipt of his application on the ground of making such application

Image 1 - Section 5 of Original Act - Any of the conditions to be met

Image 2 - Third Schedule of the original Act - All the conditions to be met. 11 years reduced to 5 years

Implications of the above changes

There is an already existing naturalisation process for foreign nationals staying in India for long time. The existing Naturalisation application process already had exceptions for certain countries as shown below. But the applicants have to upload atleast Visa (valid or invalid) to prove foreign nationality. 

So the CAA Amendment naturalisaton is about people with NO valid passport or travel documents whatsoever, who have lived in India for at-least 5 years. If it is going to be an application based process (like the normal naturalization), who will apply for this voluntarily?, what kind of supporting documents shall the government demand from the applicants? Or rather is it possible in anyways to implement this provision in an application based format given that these people will have no documents whatsoever to prove their parent countries. The devil lies in this detail...... Without an NRC looming, there is no way CAA can be implemented as a stand alone Act inviting application from people. Out of our 1.37 billion population, around 900 million are adults and around 900 million has voters ID. There is no reason for an individual  possessing ANY Indian document to voluntarily apply for this provision with no proofs to support.

List of Documents currently needed for naturalisation of foreign nationals with travel documents

Already existing exceptions for certain nations in documents needed for naturalisation

CAA Amendment - http://egazette.nic.in/WriteReadData/2019/214646.pdf

Original Citizenship Act - https://indiacode.nic.in/bitstream/123456789/4210/1/Citizenship_Act_1955.pdf

Online application forms for citizenship - https://indiancitizenshiponline.nic.in/Home2.aspx?formcode=08

A few lives that has changed post NRC.....

Explanations and Hypothetical situations have failed to prove the point... So here is a list of a few lives that has changed post NRC. Sources are given below as links.. The list is collated just based on newspaper reports. This is not an exhaustive list; If 3 hours of Google search could create a list of 50, then similar cases on the ground will be in thousands. Its for you to judge whether these people are 'genuine' citizens of India or 'Intruders'.

1. Abida Sidiqa (34) from Achalpara. Her brother and 4 sisters are in the list, but she is out of the list
2. Amrit Lal Das of Bongaigaon town in lower Assam – Himself and his 4 brothers excluded
3. Kamala Das – 70 year old Bengali Hindu whose son is included but she is not
4. 60-year-old Malati Bala Das from Assam’s Katirail village - has supporting documents, including her father’s refugee certificate of 1964, to prove her Indian identity. She has voted regularly since 1997. But still tagged as D Voter
5. Bhakta Das (60) was served a notice in 2009 but in 2011 he was declared an Indian citizen by a tribunal court. Interestingly, he was served a D-Voter notice in 2017 again
6. Indigenous Gorkha community members - one lakh Gorkhas have been left out of final NRC.A BJP MP told Lok Sabha on Friday that many members of the Gorkha community have been excluded from the National Register of Citizens (NRC) in Assam and asked the government to give them recognition as the state’s inhabitants. Four organisations representing the Gorkha community in Assam came together on Friday to stage a protest and submit a memorandum to Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal regarding the exclusion of members of the community from the National Register of Citizens (NRC).
7. Abdus Subhan, a former Grade IV employee in the state education department in Mohimari village of Assam - his sons Zubair Hussain (28), Ariful (25) and Yesmin (22) were out of NRC. But his 2 elder kids Fazail (35) and Salma (30) were in. “Our grandfather’s name is in the 1951 NRC. We don’t know why the exclusion happened. If my parents and elder siblings are Indians, how can I be a foreigner?,” says Zubair
8. Ahmed Toweb (28), a resident of Jogighopa in Bongaigaon - Only member of his family to be excluded. His parents and five other siblings are in. Toweb is a secretary of the state committee of NSUI, the Congress’s students’ wing.
9. Rina Bhattacharjee (71) - retired teacher in Tezpur who is excluded. Her husband is in. Rina did her schooling in West Bengal and returned to Assam to pursue higher education. She then took up a job here, she had submitted a 1967 certificate from a school in Nagaon she started teaching at and her BEd certificate from 1969
10. Jaba Namashudro (35), a resident of Udharbond in Cachar district – Out of NRC whereas her three children and husband are in. She had won a case at a Foreigners’ Tribunal in 2017 and was declared an Indian. But now she is out of NRC
11. Ananta Kumar Malo, the All India United Democratic Front (AIUDF) MLA from the Scheduled Caste-reserved constituency of Abhyapuri South in lower Assam – OUT of final NRC. Everyone else in his family is in.
12. Rama Kanta Dewri, the BJP MLA from Morigaon constituency, did not confirm or deny reports that he has been excluded - he belongs to an indigenous tribal community of the state.
13. 4 family members of Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed who was the fifth President of India excluded from final NRC
14. Nur Alam (14), a Class 8 student – Excluded from the final NRC, all other family members in
15. Khatemon Nessa (50) and Rejia Khatun (45) – Sisters of Akram Hussain who runs a pharmacy. Out of 8 siblings, these 2 are left out. They are illiterate and did not have the school and matriculation certificates others had. So there was a problem in establishing linkage with our father, whose 1966 voters’ list we used
16. Shahibul Hoque Sikdar, a history lecturer at a college in Mazgaon of Barpeta district - All his family members, including parents and two children, are in the final NRC except him
17. Tajuddin Ahmed (34), a teacher at a private school in village Kirakara in Darrang district - only one among eight brothers not to make it into final NRC
18. Jelemon Nessa (around 50) - only one in their family out of the NRC. There is a mismatch in her father’s name in the documents used for her NRC application — one says Moghrob Ali, the other Mogor Ali.
19. Sisters Dipa and Kalpana Das, in their 50s -- while Dipa was on the list, Kalpana was not
20. Mohendra Das, a daily wager – out of final NRC. appeared at the NSK without a shirt but holding a yellow plastic bag full of documents
21. Bushan Das, a resident of Udayan Nagar colony on the outskirts of southern Assam’s Silchar – Out of NRC, his 3 sons and 3 daughters also excluded. His wife is included. Apart from his driving licence, Das said he had submitted other papers, including a fraying citizenship certificate from 1956, to support his linkage to his father and grandfather, both of whom grew up in Silchar
22. Iman Ali (62) – Only 7 out of the 52 members of his joint family included in final NRC. the problem was in his father’s name. “He was actually Joyanuddin Sheikh. But in the 1966 voters’ list that we submitted for NRC, it is spelt as Joranuddin Sheikh. We were all included earlier ; only four of the 52 of us were excluded from the draft NRC,” he said. “But then there was an ‘objection’ filed against me, my two cousins and one uncle, We went for the hearing regarding the objection. The objector did not come and we don’t personally know the person who filed it. During the hearing we were asked the reason for the difference between ‘Joyanuddin’ and ‘Joranuddin’ in the documents. We realised the problem and said we have a land document of 1964 which mentions our grandfather’s name as ‘Joyanuddin’, the actual name. But they disallowed that”
23. Sanaullah, 52, (30 years in Army) retired as a subedar with the Army Corps of Electronics and Mechanical Engineers (EME) in August 2017 after serving in insurgency-affected areas of Jammu & Kashmir and the North-East – Left out of NRC along with his 3 children. Sent to detention center. Wife included in NRC
24. Shankar Rai, 43 - belongs to the Koch Rajbongshi community, one of the oldest inhabitants in the region. a spelling error on his Pan Card excluded him from the draft NRC
25. Sati Purkayashta, 73 - worked as a teacher in a local school in Guwahati. Her father died when she was six, her husband when she was 46. her name was out of the NRC draft. All her family members, including her newborn granddaughter, had made it
26. Nayanmoni Das (14) with her father Sanjit (37) and sister Tina (9) – Excluded from final NRC because her long-dead grandfather Prasanna Das is still marked as a Doubtful Voter (D-Voter) in the state’s electoral rolls. According to updation rules, a person declared foreigner by a Foreigners Tribunal (DF), a person marked Doubtful Voter (DV) by the local election officials or a person whose case is pending at an FT (PFT) and their descendants who have drawn ‘legacy’ from such persons will be excluded from NRC. Tina was excluded in the draft NRC published July last, the family said. While Sanjit, Monojit and Nayamoni made it then, their names were dropped in the additional exclusion list published on June 26. The reason said, “descendant of D-Voter”
27. Ratish Das (45) - He, his wife Kalpana and youngest child, Rajib (14) are out of the draft NRC while their two elder children Robindro (23) and Poornima (18) were included
28. The entire family of Arshad Ali (36), a driver in Barpeta, was included in draft NRC except for his daughter Amana Khatoon (11). “Her birth certificate was not accepted, I think. It is from Delhi. From 2006 to 2009, I was in Delhi. I fear about her fate if she is out of the NRC. During ‘claim’ hearing, they [officials] asked me for more documents — I said what more documents can a child have.”
29. Kesab Roy, a Koch Rajbongshis (indigenous community), has his mother left out of the NRC, while the names of her only sister and the brothers figure on it
30. Karnadhar Singha, a Koch Rajbongshis (indigenous community), wife and mother out of NRC
31. Motiurrahman – All family included except daughter-in-law
32. Somaira (7) – Out of NRC. Her father, mother included
33. Zarina Khatun – Excluded of NRC. All her siblings who used the same legacy data is in the list.
34. Rahima Khatun – Out of NRC, her 2 brothers in draft NRC
35. Gita Rani (61) – Excluded from NRC. Her sons and other family members included. Failed to produce any document to prove that her birth year is 1958 and her admission to Charilam school in 1970. Sent to detention camp. Headmaster of Tripura school flown down to support her case and provided all school documents. A few days later her name was removed from detention center list
36. Kanai Lal Chouhan (42) – Out of NRC along with 3 daughters, 1 son and 2 sisters. Farmer from Udalguri district. Mother and wife included in NRC
37. Madan Chandra Das’s family – 6 out of 9 membered family made it to NRC. Madan along with his 2 sisters out. 2 brothers in though
38. Illias Ali – Congress Legislator from Dalgaon Assembly – Made it to NRC , but her daughter is out.
39. Taffajul Ali – Was included in draft NRC but excluded of final NRC. Had land and house documents. But last year floods washed away his land and his house. Someone filed an objection against him that led to exclusion from final list
40. Mofizur Rehman – a health officer with the Meghalaya govt. His full family excluded from NRC. Spelling error in his father’s name in govt records. His father was a school teacher. His Uncle’s family is included
41. Sarbari Bhattacharjee (54) from New Bongaigaon – excluded from NRC. Born in WB but doesn’t have birth certificate with her. Her husband and daughter included
42. Krishna Chanda (80) – a retired school teacher – Excluded from final NRC. Born in Kolkata and her graduation certificate has her maiden name Krishna Gosh. The fact that she married and her surname changed to Chanda was not considered. She draws pension from Assam govt where her date of joining service is 1963
43. Azharuddin – delivery assistant with Swiggy in Guwahati – 6 out of 14 members of his family out of NRC. Submitted land records of 1962
44. Parimal Bhattacharjee (52) – works in Tanzania. Out of final NRC. Born in Arunachal Pradesh. His parents separated in 1971 and he doesn’t have any docs pre 1971. His wife and son is in NRC
45. Akbar Ali (58) Tea seller – He and his wife excluded of NRC. His 4 sons and 4 daughters are in
46. Mirchan Nessa (46) - Herself and her 9 year old grand-daughter Samina Akhtar left out of final NRC eventhough they were included in draft NRC
47. Former legislator Ataur Rahman Mazarbhuiya – Excluded from final NRC along with his daughter and son. His entire family had figured in the first NRC draft published on December 31, 2018. But four members, including Mr. Mazarbhuiya – he had used his own legacy data – were put in the exclusion list published on July 30, 2018.
48. Brigadier K.P. Lahiri, received the Veer Chakra for his exploits in the 1965 war and played a key role during the Bangladesh Liberation War of 1971 – wife excluded from final List
49. Some of Radha Krishna Saraswati’s family, the first exporter of Assam silk a century ago, are also excluded. Runa Saraswati (68) survived the Jalpaiguri flood to be married into one of Guwahati’s oldest Bengali families. the Saraswatis became the first to export Assam’s indigenous silks. Their documents dating back to more than a century made them confident of being included in the NRC. All members were in, except for Ms. Saraswati.
50. The 65-year-old Madhabi* Bose, married into a middle-class family in Guwahati’s Kalapahar area, too has been left out for a similar reason. She is from Cooch Behar, from where many documents of people born before 1972, the year the DM’s office caught fire, could not be verified

https://indianexpress.com/article/india/new-nrc-how-many-times-do-we-prove-citizenship-6142063/

https://indianexpress.com/article/north-east-india/assam/assam-nrc-persons-get-multiple-d-voter-notices-6070260/

https://indianexpress.com/article/north-east-india/assam/assam-gorkha-groups-protest-against-nrc-exclusions-6035597/

https://indianexpress.com/article/cities/kolkata/gjm-delegation-to-visit-assam-nrc-a-total-fiasco-shocked-to-see-one-lakh-gorkha-people-left-out-says-mamata-5957402/

https://indianexpress.com/article/india/bjp-mp-seeks-inclusion-of-gorkhas-left-out-of-nrc-6143062/

https://indianexpress.com/article/north-east-india/assam/out-of-nrc-retired-teacher-nsui-leader-staff-at-nrc-seva-kendra-5960220/

https://indianexpress.com/article/north-east-india/assam-nrc-mlas-faulty-genuine-citizens-out-5957268/

https://indianexpress.com/article/india/nrc-final-list-released-family-members-of-former-president-fakhruddin-ali-ahmed-again-left-out-5956636/

https://indianexpress.com/article/north-east-india/assam/assams-nrc-final-list-released-questions-despair-and-a-man-with-a-bag-of-papers-5955137/

https://indianexpress.com/article/north-east-india/assam/final-assam-nrc-40-years-of-hanging-on-to-a-driving-licence-now-this-5955033/

https://indianexpress.com/article/north-east-india/assam/in-family-of-52-four-out-of-draft-assam-nrc-45-out-now-5955099/

https://indianexpress.com/article/north-east-india/assam/ex-army-man-declared-illegal-when-i-entered-jail-i-cried-and-cried-had-defended-my-country-at-the-border-5774290/

https://indianexpress.com/article/india/assam-nrc-final-list-retired-army-officer-mohammad-sanaullah-children-wife-5953710/

https://indianexpress.com/article/north-east-india/assam/assam-national-register-of-citizens-nrc-final-draft-missing-names-stories-5950321/

https://indianexpress.com/article/north-east-india/assam/assam-nrc-countdown-families-face-split-as-d-day-nears-5946168/

https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/guwahati/koch-rajbongshis-protest-against-exclusion-from-nrc/articleshow/71163197.cms

https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/parents-in-nrc-7-yr-old-bears-bangladeshi-taunt/articleshow/70940795.cms

https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/off-the-list-villagers-in-mad-dash-rue-wasted-sacrifice/articleshow/70941109.cms

https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/guwahati/guwahati-with-48-hours-left-families-still-being-called-in-for-hearings/articleshow/70903611.cms

https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/guwahati/headmaster-spends-earned-leave-to-free-nrc-hit-woman-in-assam/articleshow/72065367.cms

https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/guwahati/assam-nrc-15000-bhojpuri-speaking-people-failed-test/articleshow/71020020.cms

https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/guwahati/aiudf-mla-not-in-nrc-daughter-makes-the-cut/articleshow/70933077.cms

https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/guwahati/landless-and-now-stateless-the-curious-case-of-taffajul/articleshow/70954259.cms

https://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-national/stateless-at-the-stroke-of-a-pen/article29312123.ece

https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/other-states/want-to-die-as-an-indian-says-nrc-excluded/article29317912.ece

https://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-national/sanaullah-out-of-the-list-aiudf-mla-left-in-the-cold/article29312115.ece

https://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/disasters-keep-some-women-out-of-nrc/article29327332.ece

The 'variance and standard deviation' in News!!

Yesterday was an eye opener for me on what we call as 'news and media reports'. Yesterday was significant in many other different ways too; but am not getting into the same. Yesterday was 26 Feb, 2019.

There was a major national event that happened and the whole nation was tracking the same carefully. But what was presented to us as 'news' was really shocking. Wikipedia says 'News is information about current events'. It says nothing about whether the information has to be right or not. So can false information be also called 'news'? Oh, i forgot-- That is fake news! Then what about unverified, unsupported, proof-less information? It's neither news nor fake news. That is the grey area where majority of Indian media was treading yesterday. The narrative changes based on which channel/ newspaper you are tuned in. This is not generally abnormal as slight variations in reports do happen across different platforms. But the variance would be minimal and mostly insignificant. But yesterday's 'news' showed the highest amount of variance (in pure statistical terms) that i have ever seen in recent times. One incident; One fact; Many versions...................

•  BBC - Indian govt said strikes targeted a training camp of the Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) group in Balakot. Pakistan said its jets had forced back the Indian planes and denied there were any casualties. What does India say happened? ------- How has Pakistan responded?------

• Reuters - India said its warplanes killed “a very large number” of fighters when they struck a militant training camp inside Pakistan on Tuesday, raising the risk of conflict between the nuclear-armed neighbours, although Pakistan officials denied there had been casualties.A senior Indian government source said that 300 militants had been killed in the strikes and that the warplanes had ventured as far as 80 km (50 miles) inside Pakistan. But no evidence was provided to back up the claims of casualties.Pakistani officials dismissed the Indian claims, saying the Indian aircraft had dropped their bombs in a wooded area, causing no damage or casualties.Villagers near the town of Balakot were shaken from their sleep by the air strikes. They said only one person was wounded in the attack and they knew of no fatalities.From what villagers could see, the Indian attack had missed its target as the bombs dropped exploded about a kilometre away from the madrasa. “We saw fallen trees and one damaged house, and four craters where the bombs had fallen,” said Mohammad Ajmal, a 25-year-old who visited the site.“We couldn’t tell what had happened. It was only in the morning that we figured out it was an attack,” he told Reuters after visiting the site, in a wooded hilltop area.

• Aljazeera - Indian fighter jets on Tuesday crossed into Pakistani territory, conducting what the foreign ministry in New Delhi termed a "non-military pre-emptive action" against armed group Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM), dramatically escalating tensions between the nuclear-armed neighbours weeks after a suicide attack in the disputed Kashmir region. Pakistan reported the Indian airspace incursion, with military spokesman Major General Asif Ghafoor saying its air force jets were scrambling to respond, forcing the Indian aircraft to "release [their] payload in haste while escaping".Indian Foreign Secretary Vijay Gokhale, however, asserted that the jets had hit their target, and that "a very large number of JeM terrorists, trainers, senior commanders and groups of jihadis who were being trained for fidayeen action were eliminated".Local residents and journalists in Pakistan told Al Jazeera that the sounds of aircraft and an explosion were heard in the Jaba area of Mansehra district, located about 60km from the LoC

• NewYork Times -  Indian warplanes conducted airstrikes in Pakistan on Tuesday, Pakistani officials said, in an escalation of tensions between the nuclear-armed nations after a suicide bombing against Indian troops in the disputed Kashmir region this month.It was the first time that Indian aircraft had crossed the Kashmir Line of Control to strike in decades. But it was unclear what, if anything, the attack jets hit on the Pakistani side, raising the possibility that India was making a calculated bet to assuage public anger but minimize the risk of a major Pakistani military response.The Indian Foreign Ministry confirmed in a news briefing that a strike had occurred but would give no further details. 

• The Indian Express - Less than a fortnight after the single bloodiest attack in Jammu and Kashmir in the last three decades of militancy, India on Tuesday conducted air strikes deep inside Pakistan, the first time after the 1971 war that it has hit targets in the country. Announcing that India had struck the “biggest training camp” of the Jaish-e-Mohammad in Balakot in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa in the pre-dawn hours of Tuesday, in which “a very large number” of JeM terrorists and their trainers were “eliminated”, the NDA government, effectively, drew a new red line in its strategic calculus with Pakistan. By striking terrorist camps about 80 km away from the Line of Control in Pakistan’s Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, India chose “non-military” targets, the Jaish-e-Mohammed-run terror camps, and justified the strikes as “pre-emptive” since terrorists, Delhi said, were plotting another attack

• The Hindu - Twelve days after the Pulwama attack, the Indian Air Force bombed the Jaish-e-Mohammad’s “biggest” terror-training camp in Pakistan’s Balakot early on Tuesday. The operation was carried out by 12 Mirage-2000 fighter jets, which unleashed five one-tonne bombs on the camp, based 70 km inside the Line of Control (LoC), in the Pakistani province of Khyber Pakthunkhwa. Senior officials citing intelligence inputs said the JeM facility was particularly crowded with 200-325 militants as many had abandoned launch pads and training camps closer to the LoC after the Pulwama attack in the expectation that India would not target Balakot. Defence officials said the Mirage fighters took off from the Gwalior airbase at approximately 3 a.m., backed by aircraft from other bases, including Sirsa, Bathinda and Agra. Announcing the strikes, the government said it was a “non-military, pre-emptive” counter-terror operation against imminent threats from the JeM.

• India Today - Indian Air Force Mirage 2000 jets crossed the Line of Control and then went into Pakistan to destroy terrorist training camps of Jaish-e-Mohammed led by Masood Azhar. A large training camp was flattened in Balakot in Pakistan's Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province. 12 Mirage 2000 jets took part in the operation. They dropped 1,000-kg laser-guided bombs to destroy at least six terrorist terror camps inside Pakistan-occupied Kashmir and Balakot. The aircraft crossed over at 3 am even as Pakistani armed forces were on high alert. The Indian formation managed to avoid detection. When Pakistan Air Force noticed the bombarding, it scrambled its jets but the formation was not easy to tackle for them. By the time, more aircraft took off from Abbottabad, the operation was over and Indian jets had safely returned home. The Balakot bombing took just about 90 seconds and the entire operation was over in 21 minutes. Government sources estimate the number of terrorists killed to be between 200 and 300. Yousuf Azhar, one of the hijackers of IC-814, may be one of those killed. Yousuf, is a brother-in-law of Jaish-e-Mohammed chief Masood Azhar, who was released after IC-814 hijacking and went on the form the terrorist group. India said this was not a revenge attack but a pre-emptive strike led by intelligence inputs and was 'non-military' in nature. A non-military preemptive strike technically means the operation targeted no military installation.Pakistan pre-empted India's announcement by claiming Pakistan Air Force had chased away Indian Air Force intruders who then unloaded their payload in haste, damaging some trees. Pakistan media also denied any such strike and said that only person suffered minor injuries in Balakot

• ANI News - Sending out a huge message, India on Tuesday carried out air strikes deep inside Pakistan, destroying major camp of JeM and eliminating a "large number" of terrorists, including top commanders, of the terror group. In the swift operation, launched around 3.30am and completed within 12 minutes, 12 mirage-2000 fighter jets pounded the training center, housing around 300 terrorists, in Balakot area of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province with six bombs while SU-30 combat aircraft maintained air superiority to ward off any retaliation by PAF, sources said. The casuality figure of the terrorists is very high as the JeM had shifted  its entire cadre to this camp from the launching  pads along the LOC, fearing surgical strikes-type response from India in the aftermath of Pulwama attack, sources said about first such action by India.  A large number of Jaish terrorists, including top commanders, trainers and those terrorists who were to be 'fidayeen' were eliminated in the 'non military' air strike, Foreign secretarty Gokhale told the media while officially disclosing information about the air strike, hours after the action. Sources said the camp housed an ammunition dump having more than 200 AK Rifles, uncounted round of hand grenades, explosives, and detonators and it was blown up in the strike. Among the targets were  Maulana Ammar, who is associated with Afghanistan and Kashmir Operations, and Maulana Talfa Saif, brother of  Maulana Masoor Azhar and head  of suicide  bomber preparation wing, the intelligence sources said.

• Republic TV headlines - India has struck Pakistan and we have struck them hard. There were 3 strikes - Balakot, Muzzafarabad and Chakothi . 16 fighter jets were used, 6 terror camps were targeted, over 245 terrorists killed in 17 minutes; figure can go up to 345, terror bombed, burned and buried. Pakistan army says it was too dark and their jets were too fast. (*There were many further details they had given on TV including the photos of the 'eliminated' terrorists)