Target: 5-star resort that trains jihadis

The Balakot town is some 80 km from the Line of Control near Abbottabad where Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden was killed in hiding by covert US forces. The camp was used to train Masood Azhar's relatives and cadres in advanced weapons and tactics. Before the inception of JeM, the camp was also used by the Hizbul Mujahideen.

The Balakot camp was an important training centre for the JeM and other terror organisations and it had several structures to accommodate terrorist trainees and facilities to train them. The camp could facilitate 500 to 700 people, and even had a swimming pool along with cooks and cleaners. Situated on the Kunhar river, the camp offered aquatic training to terrorists and housed hundreds of them. Several ‘inspirational lectures’ were delivered at this camp by JeM founder and terror mastermind Masood Azhar and others.

In the Balakot camp, the terrorists were imparted the advanced 'Daura-e-Khaas' training in weapons, explosives and field tactics, attack on security forces’ convoys, planting and making of IEDs, suicide bombing, rigging vehicles for suicide attacks and survival tactics in high altitudes and extreme-stress situations. Yousuf Azhar, who headed the Balakot camp, is wanted by the CBI in the IC-814 hijacking case with a pending Interpol red corner notice against him since 2000. He is the brother-in-law of Masood Azhar, chief of Jaish-e-Mohammad.