India Versus Pakistan: How the #airstrikes were covered in newspapers

Yesterday, the Indian Air Force carried out an operation at 3.30 am where it struck Jaish-e-Mohammed’s biggest training camp in Balakot in an “intelligence-led operation”. India called it a “non-military pre-emptive action”.

Given the scale and gravity of such an event, it had to be front and centre for newspapers this morning in both India and Pakistan.

The entire top half of Indian Express was devoted to the air strikes (the bottom half was an ad for an upcoming movie). Express called it a “new red line in war on terror”. While the front page was mainly a round-up of what had happened, their extensive coverage was in the inside pages.

The Times of India had its usual flap (the opening flap was about the Ayodhya case) but it’s front page headline was an acrostic for IAF. TOI said India had broken “free of its shackles” and said India was calling it a non-military pre-emptive strike to “assuage the international community and give Pakistan some sort of a face-saver”. It also “exclusively accessed” images of the facility targeted in Balkot, calling it “posh” and “five-star”.

Hindustan Times devoted the top half of its front page to the air strikes (the anchor stories were on Ayodhya and education in Delhi’s state budget). Its lead story made it a point to mention that while Yusuf Azhar headed the camp, it was unclear if he was killed in the strike.

As a bonus, here’s Hindustan Times‘s opening flap which is a graphical representation of how events unfolded.

The Hindu‘s front page headline was “India bombs Jaish camp in Pakistan’s Balakot” with a smaller column on Pakistan’s response.

Then there’s The Telegraph. It takes some time to wrap ones head around “Strike Thirst Met, Time To Choose Wisely”, but Telegraph was never one for a prosaic headline. It gave both sides: what India said happened, and Pakistan’s version. Unlike most other papers, it added a smaller story on how the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation had “flayed” the attack given that on Saturday, India had “hailed the guest of honour status as a big event”.

Deccan Herald saved the top half of its front page for the air strikes, calling it a “Pulwama payback”. It said “war clouds” were now “looming large”.

Given the ambiguity of the death toll (some “sources” claim 300, others say 1 injured), Deccan Chronicle cautiously said “Huge Toll Likely” under its main headline. It also had a smaller story saying its “advantage Modi all the way”, and how this could “change the narrative”. It quoted a BJP leader as saying: “Now you know what the man with 56-inch chest can do.”

Unlike Deccan Chronicle, its south Indian counterpart The New Indian Express subhead clearly said “350 terrorists” were eliminated in the Jaish camp. It added there was no confirmation of Yusuf Azhar’s death.

The Statesman‘s subhead also said “more than 300 terrorists” were “reportedly killed”.

Mathrubhumi‘s front page headline was emphatic. It said “21 Minutes; Smithereens”.

Dainik Bhaskar‘s front page had a celebratory air, pointing out in a bold headline that the Indian Air Force crossed the Pakistan border for the first time in 48 years. “Terrorist camp destroyed”, it added. The page also included a photograph of dancing citizens captioned “This is the josh”.

Dina Thanthi proclaimed “India takes revenge” in its headline, its subhead adding that 350 were killed.

Meanwhile, Pakistan’s print media reported the Indian Air Force’s air strikes near Balakot in Pakistan with more muscle than moderation. The front pages of the nation’s leading English-language dailies carried warnings by politicians in big, bold letters: “Pakistan vows response to India ‘at time & place of our choosing’,” read the front-page of Pakistan’s oldest and most widely-read English newspaper, Dawn.

“On Guard, In Gear” were the four words clipped across the Lahore-based The Nation: “Pakistan looks over defence muscle as world supports its stance amid India’s sabre-rattling” went the sub-headline. The front-page carried a panoramic picture of the Pakistan Air Force (PAF) officials with General Bajwa, Chief of Army Staff, deliberating upon “operational environment including threat and response” at the Air headquarters in Islamabad. A front-page headline also claimed that “China, Japan, Germany, EU appreciate Pak efforts for peace in region”.

The Karachi-based The Express Tribune postured: “India’s ‘fictitious’ air strike imperils regional peace”. Only an inch or two above, the newspaper quoted politician Shehbaz Sharif, the leader of the Opposition in Pakistan’s national assembly, as saying that “If war imposed, then we’ll hoist Pakistani flag on Delhi”.

Dawn and The Express Tribune also carried front-page reports of eyewitness accounts from Jabba, a hamlet outside Balakot where Pakistan claims Indian Air Force dropped its ‘payload’, resulting in craters and scorched pine trees. Both reports record witnesses hearing “sounds of the aircraft” and “loud bangs” that “shook our houses”. The report quotes villagers denying any big-scale casualties in the area. Nooran Shah, a 60-year-old resident of Jabba, was injured when one of the bombs landed outside his single-storeyed mud house, ripping the entrance door which then hit his head, the reports say. These accounts “expose Delhi’s pack of lies,” went The Express Tribune headline.

The Islamabad-based Pakistan Observer played less with images and more with text. Its main headline quoted Pakistan’s Foreign Minister Shah Mahmoud Qureshi: ‘We will teach you a lesson soon; Qureshi tells India’.