Opinion With nine strikes, India underlines its new message to Pakistan
Operation Sindoor says unequivocally that terrorists and their camps, wherever they may be in Pakistan, are no longer off-limits for India's military. Delhi has its task cut out for the day after, Islamabad must look within
Unlike in the past, when India was hesitant to attack Pakistani territory, the airstrikes targeted well-known terror camps in Sialkot, Muridke, and Bahawalpur -- all in west Punjab. 
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INDIA’S ANTICIPATED military response to the horrific killing of 26 innocent people at Pahalgam in Kashmir last month came in carefully calibrated fashion in the early hours of Wednesday. India’s initial reaction was focused on diplomatic, economic, and political measures, and included the decision to keep the 1960 Indus Waters Treaty in abeyance. That India would use military force in retaliation against the Pahalgam butchery on April 22 was never in doubt. No government in the world would tolerate an attack so brutal in nature that picked out men of one religious community and gunned them down in front of their families. Although India has seen many terror attacks from Pakistan over the last four decades, few of them were as outrageous as this one. The Pahalgam strike aimed at ending the recent period of peace and stability in Jammu and Kashmir and provoking communal conflict in India. Avenging the attack was inevitable, but the question was about its nature and timing.
Instead of rushing into an automatic reaction, the government chose to wait and prepare an effective military response. The intervening two weeks were also used to make India’s political case to the international community on Pakistan’s complicity in the terror attack and for mobilising friends and partners to support India in the current crisis. Barring China and Turkey, close friends of Pakistan, the international response to Indian diplomacy has, in general, been positive. The success of the Indian diplomatic effort was visible in the refusal of a closed door meeting this week of the United Nations Security Council, convened at Islamabad’s request, to support Pakistan’s argument that Pahalgam was an Indian false flag operation and that Delhi must be restrained from any military response to the terror attack. Much of the international community called for restraint on both sides, but Delhi was not going to forego its right of self-defence in face of the brazen terror in Pahalgam.
THE EXERCISE of that right unfolded through targeted airstrikes on nine sites linked to Rawalpindi’s terror infrastructure in Pakistan occupied Kashmir and west Punjab. While the full assessment of their impact is awaited, the airstrikes appear to have inflicted considerable damage on the terror hideouts while limiting collateral civilian damage. They also sent a clear message that terror camps, even deep inside Pakistan, were no longer off-limits for the Indian military.
Unlike in the past, when India was hesitant to attack Pakistani territory, the airstrikes targeted well-known terror camps in Sialkot, Muridke, and Bahawalpur — all in west Punjab. Briefing the media on Wednesday, Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri described India’s airstrikes as “measured, non-escalatory, proportionate, and responsible. They focused on dismantling the terrorist infrastructure and disabling terrorists likely to be sent across to India.” They are also meant to “pre-empt as well as deter more such cross-border attacks”, said Misri.
In emphasising the “responsible and proportional” nature of the Indian military response, Misri was underlining that India has no desire for further escalation. But the Pakistan Army has a vote in how the situation evolves from here. The signals from Pakistan have been mixed. Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has pledged retaliation and the foreign office in Islamabad has said its armed forces would respond at a time and place of its choosing.
THIS MOMENT of quiet is bound to invite international diplomatic intervention. In the many past military crises in the Subcontinent, the US rushed in to separate Delhi and Rawalpindi from coming to blows that could escalate to the nuclear level. This time, though, President Donald Trump is not eager to jump into the fray. But the US establishment is engaged with both sides, and so are common friends of India and Pakistan in the Arabian Peninsula. It remains to be seen if they can dissuade the Pakistan Army from further military escalation. If they can’t, Delhi will have to respond with force to any further provocations from Pakistan. There is no guessing where it might go after that.
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At some point, the dust will settle and the Indian security establishment will have to do considerable introspection on the origin and evolution of the current confrontation with Pakistan. Finding ways to prevent terror attacks like Pahalgam must be the highest priority for the Indian government. It might also be unwise for Delhi to conclude that deterrence has been restored with Wednesday’s airstrikes. Pakistan’s terror infrastructure is well-entrenched and is unlikely to disappear so long as it has dedicated support from the Pakistan Army.
There is no reason to believe that the Pakistan Army has been chastened by the Indian airstrikes. Indian military professionals are also aware that Pakistan’s armed forces are no pushover. And that to effectively deter Pakistan from the pursuit of terror, India needs to acquire an unambiguous military edge over Rawalpindi. As of now, India has drawn a new red line for Pakistan, one whose message is unmistakable: In the face of terror that seeks to kill and divide, it stands united and strong, committed to ensuring that no one will get away with murder even if it means pursuing them to the “ends of the earth”.
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