India says it told Pakistan of Jaish-e-Muhammad terror camp before airstrikes

India gave specific information to Pakistani authorities on the location of a U.S.-designated terror group’s training camp inside Pakistan well before Indian fighter jets bombed the camp last week, according to a high-level Indian official who says Islamabad flat-out ignored the information.

“They did nothing,” said the official, who spoke anonymously with reporters in Washington Thursday about India’s Feb. 26 strike on an alleged Jaish-e-Muhammad (JeM) terror camp in northwest Pakistan — a strike that sharply escalated tension between South Asia’s two nuclear-armed nations.

Tempers were already soaring between Delhi and Islamabad after JeM had claimed responsibility for a Feb. 14 suicide bombing in Indian-controlled Kashmir that killed 40 Indian military personnel. India asserts JeM is tacitly supported by the Pakistani government — an allegation Islamabad vehemently denies.

With that as a backdrop, India’s decision to respond to the suicide bombing with an airstrike against JeM inside Pakistani territory last week brought things to a whole other level. Within a day, Pakistan retaliated by shooting down two Indian warplanes and briefly capturing an Indian pilot, moves that triggered fear of all-out war as the Trump administration and world leaders pleaded for calm.

While tensions appear to have eased over the past few days, the Indian official who briefed reporters Thursday said the current situation is the “new norm” — meaning because New Delhi has “proved that we can carry out a counterterrorism strike deep inside Pakistani territory.”

Further, the official said future Indian military strikes against alleged terrorist camps in Pakistan are a possibility and that such strikes would be well within the norms of international law. The official added that India is confident the Trump administration stands with Delhi in calling on Pakistan to end its policy of tacitly supporting terrorists.

The official also argued that the Pakistani government’s claims during recent days to have engaged in a crackdown against JeM — Islamabad said Tuesday that it had arrested dozens of suspects in response to the Feb. 14 suicide bombing pinned on the group — are illegitimate.

With Washington cautiously monitor the situation, Pakistani officials bristled Thursday at the suggestion that Islamabad provides safe haven for terrorists, has ignored counterterrorism tips provided by Delhi or turned a blind eye on any JeM training camps inside Pakistan.

A Pakistani official, who spoke on background with The Washington Times, claimed Indian officials have lied about the impact of their Feb. 26 airstrike against the alleged JeM camp, saying the camp was just not what New Delhi says it was.

“Therefore, the question of sharing of advanced information on a non-existing facility does not arise,” said the Pakistani official, who added that Pakistan was well within its own right “to respond in self-defense” after India carried out the airstrike inside Pakistan.

With regard to Indian criticism of Pakistan’s claim to be arresting suspects in the Feb. 14 suicide bombing, meanwhile, the Pakistani official said: “Yet again, India is trying to act as judge and jury of its own case.”

“Our actions against extremist and terrorist elements are driven by our own commitments and policy to not allow any individual or organization the space to use Pakistani territory against any other country,” the official claimed, adding that “Pakistan believes that peace and stability in the broader South Asia region is in its own core national interest.”

However, big questions loom over the extent to which the Trump administration agrees. President Trump made headlines last year by suspending U.S. military aid to Pakistan on grounds Islamabad has given “safe haven to terrorists” that U.S. forces are battling in Afghanistan.

State Department spokesman Robert Palladino said Thursday that U.S. officials are well aware of recent counterterrorism arrests and other steps being taken by Pakistan, but suggested the administration remains wary of Islamabad’s commitment against such groups as JeM.

“The United States notes these steps and we continue to urge Pakistan to take sustained, irreversible action against terrorist groups that would prevent future attacks and that will promote regional stability,” Mr. Palladino told reporters. “We reiterate our call for Pakistan to abide by its United Nations Security Council obligations to deny terrorists safe haven and block their entry to funds.”