In any war, truth is the first casualty. So too with the present engagement between India and Pakistan post the Pahalgam massacre of innocent tourists by Pakistan-trained terrorists a fortnight ago. Lies are traded generally by those who are on the defensive. Yet, fact is, the subcontinent is bracing a full-scale war even as India claimed it made an offensive only against terrorist targets inside Pakistan or PoK, and not against civilians and military establishments. On Thursday night, a full day after India hit nine specific targets – five in PoK and four deep inside Pakistan, including in its Punjab province for the first time since 1971 – Pakistan attempted and failed to target 15 cities/military establishments inside the Indian territory. These were foiled by an alert, highly sophisticated Indian air defence system. This meant an “escalation” of the scenario, against which India had warned Pakistan. India stresses that it has only “responded” to this by going one more step ahead and smashing Pakistan’s air defence system in Lahore and elsewhere. With all these, the scenario is now fully surcharged – also meaning that Sindoor 2 is on. Notably, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh stressed at the all-party meeting in New Delhi that this engagement has not stopped.
Pakistan has been passing through a deep crisis due to a difficult economic downturn. It neither has money to replenish or strengthen its military stocks, nor the wherewithal to keep its national airlines up and flying. It just has a handful of planes. Pakistan could not deter India’s offensive this time too, even as the scale was larger, targeting as many as nine locations, and decimating over 25 terrorist infrastructures. The Pakistani military could only blink this time too. Its systems are obviously in a pitiable state. This, however, did not deter its army chief from bragging, blowing hot and cold, and even giving a religious slant to whip up feelings within Pakistan against India. Worse, what Pakistan faces now is an internal revolt as well in a more pronounced fashion. Some 14 Pakistani soldiers have been killed in an ambush by Baluchistan Liberation Army, which has also uprooted Pakistani flags from government establishments in the province plagued by the separatists. This, for them, is the time – to strike when the iron’s hot.
The Pakistani military and political establishments that tried to browbeat India and the world with threats of use of nuclear bombs, should India turn aggressive, are shocked. The deafening silence on their part in the past two days is perhaps proof they are barking up the wrong tree. Any nuclear attack could be an invitation to worse retaliation from this side, decimating the Islamic nation in one go. Question is, why did Pakistan precipitate matters to this level by herding its bunch of terrorists to unleash mayhem on the Indian soil at this hour. The Indian leadership cannot be faulted if it saw an opportunity to set matters right once and for all times to come.
