Balakot | Pakistan

• CJCSC urged troop mobilisation • COAS cautioned against hasty escalation ISLAMABAD: The Natio­nal Secur­ity Committee (NSC) did not overrule the then army chief Gen Qamar Bajwa’s response plan during the 2019 Balakot crisis, according to at least two participants of that meeting who spoke on Monday. “The then army chief Gen Qamar Javed Bajwa’s response strategy was agreed upon and executed by the Pakistan Air Force,” said a federal minister who attended the meeting, adding that the then chairman of the joint chiefs of staff committee, Gen Zubair Hayat, had proposed a more radical option that was not accepted. An armed forces official who also participated in the meeting gave a similar account, saying that then prime minister Imran Khan was “displeased” with Gen Hayat’s suggestion, which he thought “did not make any sense.” The statements counter a recent claim by former defence secretary Lt Gen (Retd) Asif Yasin Malik, who said that during the 2019 NSC meeting held after the Balakot strikes, Gen Bajwa had a...