Operation Sindoor: India’s Measured Message To Pakistan – OpEd
In the mid-night of 7 April, 2025 from 1:05 am to 1:30am India conducted a very precise Air Strike over the 9 terrorists locations and infrastructure inside the Pakistan and Pakistan occupied Jammu and Kashmir.
While briefing about these Air Strike to the press, spokespersons from the Security forces and Foreign Ministry emphasised that these strikes were focused, measured, and non-escalatory, especially avoiding Pakistani military facilities. The Indian Embassy in Washington DC stated that the strikes were precise and non-escalatory; focusing solely on terror camps and the India’s Security Advisor Ajit Doval briefed his US counterpart Marco Rubio on the operation. Although the mid-night air strikes by India against the terrorists infrastructure on the soil of Pakistan are connected with the massacre of 26 tourists by the terrorists in Pahalgam, but it has long term repercussions on the coveted operations or the unconventional warfare of Pakistan Army, who not only sponsors, trains the Islamic fundamentals and terrorists but also provides a safe haven to the most wanted terrorists on the soil of Pakistan.
It is very pertinent to mention that India’s air strike against the terrorists’ infrastructure on the soil of Pakistan are as much calibrated as the recent terrorists attack and massacre of the 26 tourists by the terrorists of The Resistance Front (TRF) an offshoot of Lashkar -e- Toiba. Lashkar -e- Toiba is an internationally banned terrorist organisation and it is deeply connected with the terrorist activities in India with its particular focus and nexus in the region of Jammu and Kashmir.
Violence and bloodshed have had constant presence in Kashmir for decades and the history of the blood-bath and sufferings of the people of Jammu and Kashmir goes back to the partition of India and the invasion Pakistan Army in the guise of Tribal invasion. In the fragile political scenario the people of Jammu and Kashmir became the victims of the complexities of centre-state relations and the party politics at state and centre that resulted into the development of some temporary constitutional measures like Article 370 and 35A. Article 370 and 35A proved to be an exception to the basic principles of the constitutionalism, equality before the law and equal citizenship to the Women, Dalits (Punjabi sweepers of Municipal Committees Jammu and Srinagar) Gorkhas and West Pakistan Refugees on the one hand. On the other hand the special status which was provided to the State of Jammu and Kashmir in comparison to the other states of the Indian Union has been misused and misinterpreted by the local political parties which developed a sense of separation and secessionism especially among the Muslim population who took the special status as a permanent award to the religious demography of state and not as temporary measures to accommodate the geographical and culture specific requirements of the state as originally provided in the constitution.
Under the designed politics of Jammu and Kashmir the state dominant political party, All Jammu and Kashmir National Conference (JKNC) had a unique alliance with the Congress which was single dominant and ruling political party at Centre which restrained the deepening of democracy in the fragile political space of Jammu and Kashmir as the NC and Congress alliance has been accused by the people of Jammu & Kashmir, media, political opposition at the state as well as at the centre for the rigged elections. It was in the early 1990’s that the Pakistan successfully launched its coveted operations in the scenic valley of Kashmir. The most popularized phase to justify the rise of terrorism and the violence against minorities by the fundamentalists is rigged election to the State Legislative Assembly of Jammu and Kashmir, March 1987. The contestants were National Conference, Congress and the Muslim United Front (MUF) a coalition of the Islamic parties that had come together in 1987. Many scholars predicted that MUF performed well in elections but lost to the National Conference and Congress alliance due to the rigging of elections by the National Conference. The MUF leaders then took the path of violence, Muhammad Yusuf Shah named himself as Sayeed Salahuddin and become the head of Hizbul Mujahedeen and Yasin Malik headed the Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF). The most astonishing was the sudden rise in the violence against the Hindus and the infiltration of the foreign Islamic terrorists’ at large scale within no time. The open threats and the killings of the Kashmiri Hindus by the fundamentalists and terrorists and the exodus of the Kashmiri Hindus needed no proof to prove that the Pakistan Military intelligence wing i.e., Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) was involved in destabilizing Jammu and Kashmir. At that time Pakistan Political and military leadership openly supported the violence and terrorism in Kashmir as the ethnic and militant movement of Kashmiris against the Indian state on the international forums. But Kashmir lost the love for Pakistan soon as the recruitment of the Kashmiri Muslims to the terrorist organizations reduced to a large extent within a decade and a sharp decline in the recruitment of local youths to the terrorist ranks. The sign of discontent between the Kashmiri terrorist groups and the Pakistan ISI sponsored terrorist organisations were visible as Pakistan abandoned JKLF infavour of the Hizbul Mujahideen (HM). Though it had Kashmiri cadres, the HM was controlled by ISI. Later, even the HM was dominated by more pro Pakistan Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT). Several groups like The Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) and others were also propped up by Pakistan to achieve several tactical and strategic objectives of command and control, to destabilize India as well as to achieve ambiguity and ease of denial at the international level. The infusion of suicide bombers and foreign mercenaries after the Kargil misadventure resulted in further alienation of the Kashmiris from Pakistan, while leading to a surge in casualty figures. Parveen Swami in his assessment in the 2008 South Asia Intelligence Review, concluded the facts about the gradual decline of the Jihad sponsored by Pakistan in Kashmir. According to him, this was due to its diminishing cadre strength, growing infighting among the cadres, the lack of support from the common Kashmiri and the Indian Army’s better management of the security situation in J&K.
The invention of New Media and its use by the fundamentalist and terrorists across the globe have had definite impact on the valley of Kashmir. The most effective non-violent technique of the New Media was the use deep fake and propaganda to encourage the local youth to join the terrorist’s ranks which started in 2012 and reached its peak in 2016. The killing of Burhan Wani, the Poster Boy of Hizbul Mujahideen by the armed forces on 8 July, 2016 has not only witnessed the large scale protest and rage in the valley but it also resulted in cases of stone pelting against the Security during the cordon operations against the terrorists. In the changed scenario Pakistan military wing not only carried the You Tube Campaigns to radicalize the Kashmiri youth through the trained Islamic preachers but also held online trainings on the handing of explosives and arms through the Online WhatsApp workshops and it is shocking to know that the rush for such online trainings was so high that thousands have been put on the waiting list after the online registration of the online training to become terrorists in Kashmir. As per the reports published by the American based research institute there were more than 5000 WhatsApp groups in Kashmir even after the abrogation of Article 370 which were operated from the Pakistan to spread the fundamentalism and terrorism in Kashmir through the deep fakes and brain wash of Kashmiri Youth.
It was a great policy failure of India that despite of multi-faceted approach to combat terrorism, encompassing strengthening intelligence sharing, modernizing security forces, implementing advanced surveillance systems, and enhancing border security it couldn’t ensure the safety and security of its citizens. The terrorist attacks and massacre of the innocent civilians and killing of the security forces personnel by the terrorists organizations who have deep roots in Pakistan has not only happened in Kashmir only but showed its presence across India. Some of most heinous and shocking incidents of terrorism and infiltration in the India like Kargil infiltration in 1999, Terrorists attack on the Indian Parliament in 2001, Hotel Taj attack in Mumbai 2008, Attack on the Air Force Base in 2016 and Terrorist Attack on the Military Camp in Uri in 2016, etc, have had deep impact on the psyche of common man
It is very pertinent to mention that despite of Military capabilities India has never thought to nip the evil in bud or to deroot the roots of terrorism from its soil that i.e. Pakistan till 2016. A historic and strategic shift has been witnessed with the change of ruling political party i.e. BJP at centre in 2014. The BJP led government took some strong policy and diplomatic measures not only to strengthen the security forces to counter terrorism but also designed the diplomatic and military measures to restrain Pakistan from its unconventional warfare by taking direct action on the terrorist camps in Pakistan after the terrorists attacks on Indian security forces in Uri and Pulwama. It is due to the internal security measures and the targeted measures against Pakistan that the way for peace, democracy, prosperity, and development has been opened for people of Jammu and Kashmir. However, the peace and prosperity of the people of Kashmir could not be digested by the deep state (military) of Pakistan and it designed the Pahalgam attack to give a major blow to peace and democracy in state, the objective of this attack was not only to destabilize the government and security forces but also to threaten the people of Kashmir by hitting their culture of benevolence and tourism.
The massacre of the tourists in the meadows of Baisaran valley in Pahalgam On 22nd April 2025 is not only a heinous act of brutality and barbarity and demoralizing of the security forces and destabilizing peace and democracy in Jammu & Kashmir but it has a broader design of dividing and threatening the Indians. It is pertinent to mention that before committing the heinous crime against humanity the terrorists identified the tourists by their religion and killed male tourists from the Hindu religion at point blank while sparing their wives and kids with a threatening message to tell the gory tale of incident to Modi (the Prime Minister of India). The designing and the execution of the heinous act of terrorism at Pahalgam involved both the security concerns and message of the culprits who were sitting in the safe haven across the Borders to the people of Jammu and Kashmir and government of India that they can halt peace, democracy and development at any time in the state and Kashmiris shouldn’t forget that the cross border forces are still strong enough to threaten their lives, peace and prosperity.
The calibrated designing and messaging of the terrorist attack in the case of Pahalgam attack required an in-depth understanding of modus operandi of the terrorists as well as the forces behind the security challenge in Jammu and Kashmir. On the very next day nation answered the Pahalgam attack with a loud veracity as the Prime Minister of India who very rarely speaks English, suddenly shifted to English from Hindi, while remembering Pahalgam during an election campaign at Madhubani in Bihar, a Hindi speaking region of India.
Prime Minister declared that “Today from the soil of Bihar, “I say this to the whole world; India will identify, trace and punish every terrorist and their backers. We will pursue them till the end of the Earth.” It was a very clear and precise message of the Prime Minister to the International community as well as to the culprits of the Pahalgam massacre. This time India didn’t speak much about the Pakistan culpability in the Pahalgam terrorist attack, it just cleared that the intelligence and investigation inputs that proved the involvement of the Lashkar-e-Toiba, a Pakistan based terrorist organization in the attack. This time India was not in mood of verbal confrontation as it wanted a fool-proof action against the culprits to guarantee the peace and security of its citizens and it planned accordingly. The international forums and the diplomatic relations with USA, Russia and Afghanistan etc., were utilized to prove the justifiability and urgency of India to target terrorists’ infrastructure on the soil of Pakistan.
A fool-proof action plan was prepared within a day of the Pahalgam attack as the Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS) took some drastic measure to punish the deep state of Pakistan with full force and put “the final nail in the coffin of terrorism.” The suspension of Indus water treaty (IWT), trade relations and the reduction of members of the Pakistan High Commission India was the immediate and strong message of India to Pakistan that government of India can go with permanent measures that can disturb the economy and natural environment of the Pakistan. The stopping of water supply to Pakistan from Chenab River after releasing of large quantity to water to flood Pakistan was an attempt to India to message Pakistan deep state that India could create permanent havocs in Pakistan even without firing a shot.
The final warning and message to the deep state of Pakistan is given with the “Operation Sindoor”. The Operation Sindoor was designed with an objective of the “measured message” to show the military might of India to the culprits as well as their supports in Pakistan on the one hand and on the other it proved the India’s commitment of peace, democracy and harmony to the International community as the targets of this operation were limited to the terrorists infrastructure and due care was taken to not to attack any civilian and military infrastructure of Pakistan.
The joint press brief regarding the “Operation Sindoor” by the Ministry of External Affairs and Security Forces was designed with unique model of messaging the unity, integrity and military strength of India to culprits of Pahalgam as well as to the international community of the restrains that India used during the “Operation Sindoor” to save the peace and harmony in the fragile political environment of South Asia.
The press briefing on the “Operation Sindoor” by two women officers was symbolic, underscoring the India’s resolve to combat terrorism, paying tribute to the widows of those killed and conveying the powerful message of communal harmony. While sharing the detailed information regarding the terrorists connections of all the 9 targets in POJK and Pakistan to the press, India wants to send a strong message to the deep state or military establishment of the Pakistan that the Indian security forces have had not only an itinerary details of the each and every act of the Pakistan sponsored terrorists but it has also a capacity to destroy every location and station of the terrorists if required. Military restraint should not be taken as the weakness of the Indian Security forces but as a strength to which it used for sustaining, peace, democracy and harmony in greater region of South Asia.
Conclusion
The roots of the every act of terrorism are found to be connected with the policy of unconventional war against India by the Pakistan Military. India is facing the threats to the lives and security of its citizens and killings of thousands of security personnel during the combat operation and terrorists attacks forces from last four decades in Jammu & Kashmir. The strong security measures including combat operation and Air Strikes against the terrorist establishments in POJK and Pakistan after the Uri attack and Pulwama attack have been able to put some restraint on the Pakistan sponsored infiltration in the state of Jammu and Kashmir.
The state of Jammu & Kashmir is continuously witnessing the deepening of peace, democracy and development instead of violence and terrorism especially after the 5th August, 2019 peace. The Pahalgam massacre of the tourists has been designed with the motives of threatening the Kashmiri and demoralizing the security forces and dividing the India on the communal lines because the deep state of Pakistan couldn’t digest the peace and prosperity of the Kashmir and its people whom it has chosen to fight its unconventional war against India. The successful conduction of diplomatic measure and the “Operation Sindoor” against the Pahalgam attack is a measured message of India to Pakistan that it will have to pay a heavy price for any misadventure in the future.
