[19] The airstrike was conducted by India in the early morning hours of 26 February when Indian warplanes crossed the de facto border in the disputed region of Kashmir and dropped bombs in the vicinity of the town of Balakot in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province in Pakistan.

[20][21] Pakistan's military, the first to announce the airstrike in the morning of 26 February,[22] described the Indian planes as dropping their payload in an uninhabited wooded hilltop area near Balakot.

[24] Satellite imagery analyzed by the Atlantic Council's Digital Forensics Laboratory,[25] Reuters,[26] European Space Imaging,[27] and the Australian Strategic Policy Institute,[28] has concluded that India did not hit any targets of significance on the Jaba hilltop site in the vicinity of Balakot.

[a] On 10 April 2019, 47 days after the airstrike, some international journalists, who were taken to the Jaba hilltop in a tightly controlled trip arranged by Pakistani government, found the largest building of the site to show no evidence of damage or recent rebuilding.

[40] On 14 February 2019, a convoy of vehicles carrying security personnel on the Jammu–Srinagar National Highway was attacked by a vehicle-borne suicide bomber at Lethpora in the Pulwama district, Jammu and Kashmir, India.

[60] Furthermore Indian officials claim that four SU-30MKIs were launched from their South Punjab base and headed towards Jodhpur and on to Barmer, Rajasthan before turning West towards Jaish-e-Mohammed headquarters in Pakistan located in the populous town of Bahawalpur.

[67] Indian intelligence sources claim that the camp was located in a hilltop forest, 20 km (12 mi) from Balakot, and that it was a resort-style facility, with space and room for 500–700 militants, including a swimming pool, cooks and cleaners.

[71] Neutral sources have asserted that the munitions dropped by Indian warplanes appeared to have only hit several trees and caused no other damage nor any human casualties.

[75] Western security officials have cast doubt over Indian claims and asserted that there are no longer any such large scale militant camps in Pakistan.

[78] India has asserted that "a very large number of JeM terrorists, trainers, senior commanders and groups of jihadis," who were preparing for launching another suicide attack targeting Indian assets, were killed.

[84][85] Villagers from the area spoke of four bombs striking a nearby forest and field around 3 am; other than minor bruises and cuts incurred by a local man, and a few cracks in the walls of his home, both caused by shockwaves from the explosions, no damage was reported to humans or buildings.

The reporters located the facility,[66] a school run by Jaish-e-Mohammed, at around a kilometre to the east of one of the bomb craters, atop a steep ridge but were unable to access it.

[88] Satellite-data analysis by the Australian Strategic Policy Institute's Nathan Ruser concluded that there is "no apparent evidence of more extensive damage and on the face of it does not validate Indian claims regarding the effect of the strikes.

"[66][89][90] Michael Sheldon, a digital forensics analyst from Atlantic Council did another independent investigation on the issue which asserted that no damage was inflicted to any infrastructure around the target-site.

According to the official the presence of new roofs had made the assessment by technical intelligence difficult and it was up to the Indian Government to decide on the release of the classified SAR images.

[103] He also noted a JeM rally in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa on 28 February, wherein Masood Azhar's brother, Abdul Rauf Rasheed Alvi mentioned India's attack of their headquarters and vowed revenge.

[103] In another piece, Swami stated that based on intercepted communications, Research and Analysis Wing analysts estimated 90 casualties, including three Pakistani Army trainers.

Alt News, an independent fact-checker, reported that Republic TV had shared a doctored video altering Hilaly's original speech, in which he stated that the air strike was intended to cause casualties, but did not kill anyone.

[115] At the end of this meeting, the National Security Council (NSC) released a statement denying the Indian claims of the destruction of any terrorist camp and described the attack as "uncalled for" whilst adding that retaliation would be forthcoming after a joint parliamentary session.

Jaitley noted that the second reason was more important, and stated "Had the Pakistan army admitted that our fighters bombed its buildings, the first question to be raised would have been: What was the extent of damage?