The Third Eye: India's retaliatory action against Pak-directed terror attack in Pahalgam

New Delhi: US President Donald Trump unequivocal condemnation of the terrorist killings of innocent tourists at Pahalgam and a similar response from President Putin of Russia, no doubt strengthened India’s hands in its successful attempt to create a long-term deterrence against Pakistan.

Amidst the period of preparation taken by India, an element of surprise was maintained when India unleashed multiple ‘Balakote type’ of military strikes ‘in one go’ on nine terror bases and training complexes across the LoC and Indo-Pak border in the early hours of May 7, in pursuit of its declared strategy of targeting only the terror establishments not the Pakistan army entities. India has, at the same time, retained the right to hunt out the likes of Hafiz Saeed and Masood Azhar wherever they might have been sheltered by the army.

Details of the action taken by India were presented by Col. Sofiya Qureshi and Wing Commander Vyomika the following morning -they were closely associated with the planning of the counter-terror action.

The ‘daughters’ of India seemed to be at the forefront in avenging the ‘widowhood’ inflicted by terrorists on so many women at Pahalgam.

'Operation Sindoor’ was an Intelligence-based project, and in terms of precision of strikes and coordination among the defence forces, it was planned and executed by India’s National Security Advisor Ajit Doval, with unprecedented perfection.

It is good to know that geopolitically, Indo-US relations rest on a solid footing because of President Trump’s unmitigated denunciation of ‘Islamic terror’-he made an early announcement of visa restrictions on countries and regions that fostered this kind of terror- and a definite role he envisaged for India in his new strategy of countering China. India has rightly upgraded its profile in the Quad, and this was reflected in the joint statement released after the Quad Foreign Ministers' meet held at Washington on January 22 this year.

The statement not only reiterated that they all stood for a ‘free and open Indo-Pacific’ that upheld ‘rule of law, democratic values and territorial integrity’ but also emphasised the importance of the next Quad summit meeting being hosted by India later this year.

Unlike President Biden, who seemed to take no notice of the Pak-Afghan belt harbouring Islamic radical forces, President Trump’s zero tolerance towards Islamic terror would draw his close attention to this region, particularly in the context of the aftereffects of the strategic Sino-Pak alliance.

India and the US are the largest and the oldest democracies, and they together lead the democratic world, threatened by faith-based terror on one hand and dictatorial regimes on the other. On geopolitical and strategic issues, there is a natural convergence between these two countries.

The support from Russia in the context of Pahalgam marks the integral backing of the international community to India’s resolute moves to stand against terrorism. Russia, it may be mentioned, was at the receiving end of an attack by ISIS-K on a concert hall on the outskirts of Moscow in March last year, in which 135 people were killed and nearly 500 more injured.

Incidentally it may be mentioned that President Trump’s ’America First’ policy in diplomatic, economic and strategic spheres was largely dictated by his acute awareness that China- drawing lessons from the demise of Soviet Union- had consciously taken to the economic route to becoming the second superpower, that US had run into adverse balance of trade with many countries and that the ‘war like’ conflicts embracing Europe, Middle East and South Asia were proving to be an unnecessary drag on the US.

Trump's Presidency this time around is preoccupied with administrative reforms through the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE ) under Elon Musk and concentrating on cost-cutting measures with particular reference to the discarding of the funding of all Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) projects of the Biden Administration. From all indications Modi regime is handling India’s relations with the US in a diplomatically mature, internationally sound and economically stable perspective, without getting affected by ‘narratives’ of India playing second fiddle to the US or not responding firmly enough to Trump’s policies on immigration and trade.

President Trump, despite the label of ‘unpredictability’ carried by him, has an uncanny sense of importance that India’s strategic and economic support to America had, in the pursuit of his ‘Make America Great Again’(MAGA) campaign. Prime Minister Modi upheld the call when he visited the White House in February this year and, in a subtle way, reminded Trump that even India wanted ‘Make India Great Again’ but without permitting any contradictions to develop in the Indo-US cooperation on that count.

The terror attack by Pak-directed Lashkare Toiba infiltrants who killed 26 Hindus on April 22 at Pahalgam, is rightly being compared to 26/11 Mumbai attack of LeT- the Modi government has responded by granting a free hand to the defence forces in planning and executing the retaliatory action.

It is obligatory for India to eliminate the terrorist bases and the entire leadership of terrorists on a continual basis and call out the Pakistani army’s hand behind the Pahalgam massacre. This has to be done with international support that Indian diplomacy is fully competent to achieve, notwithstanding the pro-Pak stance of China. Pakistan is not going to give up on using terrorism -with faith-based motivation -as a cost-effective instrument of state policy to bleed India and this country therefore has to create a standing deterrence by way of cross border strikes whenever these would be needed- presuming that Pakistan in its desperation can escalate the conflict by attacking our military targets as well.

Finally, after Pahalgam terror attack it is advisable to put J&K in charge of a senior civilian of national security and intelligence background who commanded respect of the Defence services, had a good idea of the separatist and pro-Pakistan forces active in this border state and professionally knew the ways and means of activating the flow of local intelligence. After the terror attack at Pahalgam and the retaliatory strikes made by India, J&K has strategically become more important than ever before.

(The writer is a former Director Intelligence Bureau)

--IANS

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