New Delhi, March 12(IT): Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman asked on Tuesday why Pakistan didn't allow the media to access a terrorist training camp bombed by Indian warplanes if it were true that only trees had been hit.

Nirmala Sitharaman's remarks came at Aaj Tak's Suraksha Sabha in an interview with TV Today News Director Rahul Kanwal.

Reuters reported on March 8 that its journalists had found a path leading up to the camp at Balakot in Pakistan's Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province blocked during three visits.

The newswire said Pakistani security officials guarding the way cited "security concerns", and also reported that the Pakistan military's press wing had twice called off visits for weather and organisational reasons.

An FIR filed by Pakistan's forestry department against Indian pilots claims 19 trees were damaged. Pakistan also has plans to lodge a complaint against India at the UN, accusing New Delhi of "eco-terrorism".

'WHY WOULD PAKISTAN RESPOND?'

The Indian Air Force has categorically said it hit its targets, and Air Chief Marshal BS Dhanoa asked at press conference last week why Pakistan responded if bombs had fallen in the jungle.

A mosque worker, Mohammad Naeem, told India Today TV's investigative reporters that several Pakistani soldiers were killed in the airstrikes.

Asked about the revelations of the Balakot Tapes investigation, Niramala Sitharaman said she could not comment on intelligence.

But she said the camp had been there for a long time, and that had been a training session on February 24.