TeaHe Terrorist attack in Pahgam Jammu and Kashmir are not just a task of cruelty; This is a calculated political sign, carefully timeliness and deliberately chosen to incite human casualties, but also causes strategic disruption. A few days later after the Kashmir Valley, he started welcoming tourists as part of a new season, and while US Vice President JD Vance Tours IndiaThis is not a random or desperate strike. This appears to be a continuity of long-running patterns of terrorism, directed by Pakistani military-buddle establishment and continuously cross-border. At a time when Pakistan faded by the imagination of India’s diplomatic radar and foreign policy, it has come back: we threaten to disrupt what we are dear.
The attack took place in a alpine meadow in Basaron Which is often described as ‘Mini Switzerland’. Very setting – picnic, pony ride, and often a site of school travel – makes images more rigid. Videos of nervous tourists who are nervous for safety, and the bloodshed at the location known for its peace have left an indelible mark on public memory. This was not just a strike on innocent tourists; It was a deliberate attack on the idea of Kashmir as a safe and even sacred tourist place.
Editorial | Unity and Sankalp: Pahalgam on terrorist attack
It reduces a large -scale intelligence failure, and safety vigilance, which is deeply disturbed. Pahalgam is a tourist center; An entrance to the Amarnath Tirtha. Forces and agencies should have been on their guard. Drone and electronic monitoring infrastructure that India has invested is also absent. While intelligence failure may not happen because it was in Kargil, it would be darker as a social impact.
Responsibility for Pahalgam attack has been claimed Resistance frontIn-depth embedded within the network of Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), a proxy outfit with clear operating links for Lashkar-e-Taiba. The pattern is now familiar: provoking the pain on India, the uncertainty in Kashmir, and the reaction provoking the response – maintaining a thin veneer to all. Despite the global investigation over decades, such operations continue, in which the strategic environment is revealed in which they thrive. This is the one in which Pakistan has often worked without paying proportional costs. It should be replaced.
Prepare a response
If India has to change the calculus meaningfully in Rawalpindi, it should also develop institutional memory and policy continuity to react to political administered. Terrorism cannot be treated episodically. A long -term approach to detention should include political consent, continuous intelligence capacity and diplomatic stamina to remain with pressure in the absence of major attacks. Strategic patience, not small bursts of anti -anti -anti -power energy, is minimally equipped to handle Pakistan’s playbook.
India’s response to the Pahgam massacre should be vested not only in resentment, but also in the strategy. Condemnation is necessary but insufficient. Now the imperative is detention – not in the abstract, but as a policy. In classical strategic theory, preventive, is not a threat to punishment alone. It is accused of reliable, visible and cumulative costs that change the behavior of the opponent over time.
Certainly the difficulty lies in preparing a response that prevents without unstable. But India’s continuous restraint – Save notable exceptions such as terrorist attacks in Uri and Pulwama – Rawalpindi has often been interpreted as hesitation and weakness in front of the provocation. To change that perception, we should embrace a structure of escalatery reliability – not growing for our own, but the ability to apply pain through diplomatic, economic and secret means when the red lines are crossed when the red lines are crossed.
This includes continuous efforts to separate Pakistan diplomatically, where it wants validity; Relying on Pakistan, careful reconsideration of trade and water-sharing mechanisms; And expands secret and intelligence-based abilities to disrupt terrorist infrastructure in the Line of Control (LOC). These options are neither negligent nor novels. They are statecraft tools that have been successfully used by others – including people who lectures India on proportion.
Instability in Pakistan
To understand why Pakistan supports such acts, we should look at the internal mobility of the state. Pakistan is deeply unstable today. It is economically paralyzed, politically useless and socially frightening. In this context, adventureism in Kashmir becomes a political means – a way to reproduce the right to the military establishment and remove domestic dissatisfaction.
Unlike his predecessor, quietly practical general Qamar Javed Bajwa, head of the current army, General Asim Munir, who is known for his aggressive currency and hunger for risk, appears to revive the principle of ‘managed escapellation’ – a strategy that is seen in calibrated works with the careful of violence under the neular throw. In-depth underwriting within Nexus, a former ISI chief and Pakistan’s military-infusing, Mr. Muni has revived a rhetoric that mixes ideological complaint with strategic opportunism. His frequent references for Hindu-Muslim relations in terms of Manichian and the recent details of Kashmir, Pakistan’s “Jugular vein” confirms the ‘old’ theory that sees Kashmir as a permanent battlefield and not as a site for peace. In the violation of the ‘agreement’ of ceasefire in the operation in the operation since February 2021, there is more evidence of the recent increase in violation of ceasefire in LoC, the careless approach being followed by him.
This is not without example. Each phase of increased internal disturbance or civil-monetary imbalance in Pakistan historically coincides with escalatery behavior to India-and Kashmir has been a primary theater. The Kargil Sangharsh in 1999 was launched under the leadership of General Pervez Musharraf during the Civil Government of Nawaz Sharif, a clear example of the army’s will to bypass his own civil leadership to provoke the conflict. Parliament attack in 2001, Mumbai attack in 2008, URI attack in 2016, and Pulwama suicidal bombing in 2019 – all denied Pakistan’s involvement, tolerating the identity of a strategy designed to trigger a response from India. These incidents were not isolated of terrorism; They were episodes in a continuous campaign of asymmetric war.
Re -establishment
This is why the preventive should be re -installed. India cannot allow its opponent to believe that it can continue with such attacks without serious consequences. This is not just a matter of respect or expectation of the public; It is one of long -term strategic stability.
It is telling the choice of goals in Pahalgam. Tourism has become a symbol of temporary recovery in Kashmir. It provides livelihood to ordinary Kashmiris and represents the recurrence of relations between the valley and the rest of the country. Therefore, attacking tourists is not only a task of terror, but also an attempt to vandalize a lot of idea of generality. To cut the valley from its visitors, to deepen the isolation that terrorist groups trust.
It is important to say clearly: The people of Kashmir are not complicated in this violence. In contrast, they are suffering before this. The younger generation in the valley is looking for an opportunity, not insurgency. They want a future beyond better education, better jobs and struggle. The port of sympathy for Kashmiris’ terrorists is that both are factually wrong and strategically dangerous. It separates a very population whose inclusion is necessary for any sustainable peace. India’s internal response, then, should be firm as its exterior – but not in the language of repression. Instead, it should be expressed through continuous economic investment, political engagement and continuous efforts in social integration. This is not only the right thing to do, but also strategically smart things.
The time of Shri Vance’s visit to India offers a moment of diplomatic opportunity. Washington has understood the long shadow that state-proposed terrorism involves artists on democracy. India should press for a clear public language from the US and its allies, and for continuous pressure on Pakistan’s support network. Sympathy is welcome after the attacks; What does action mean more in front of them.
There are no easy solutions. But action should be taken before clarity. Pahalgam massacre is not another tragedy to be absorbed into the long bookkeeping of terror only. It is a reminder that the ambiguity hugs the aggressive. The only language that has once forced the courageous of Pakistan is the language of reliable results. It is time to speak again.
Amitabh Mattu, Dean, School of International Studies, JNU; And former Vice Chancellor, Jammu University
Published – 24 April, 2025 01:30 AM IST