Indian Response to Pakistan

Pahalgam carnage demanded a decisive response to send a strong message to the perpetrators. As what happened in Pahalgam is not an ordinary incident. It was meant to kill many birds with one stone. In yesterday’s editorial The Rising Kashmir has already underlined the ideological sustenance of terrorism in Jammu and Kashmir. Terrorism in Jammu and Kashmir has to be dealt with totality by addressing its internal and external dimensions.The lull before the storm can’t be taken as the emergence of normalcy.That is what has exactly happened by considering tourism as the barometer of peace in Kashmir.Pahalgam terror attack has exposed the fault lines.It has become evidently clear that terrorism in Jammu and Kashmir is not confined to infiltration but a strategy of asymmetrical war imposed on the Indian nation. Over the years the Indian strategic community and defence establishment has been defining the terrorism as proxy war.This actually misses the real intent that sustains terrorism in Jammu and Kashmir.First of all,the Indian security establishment will have to accept that what is going on in Jammu and Kashmir under the guise of terrorism is a war imposed on India.Pakistan knows it well that if it has to sustain then violating the territorial integrity of India will give it currency.After all its emergence was based on showing itself different from India.The political frustration assumed new levels of degradation when faces with the ground reality that it has no history and geography of its own.In order to delink it from the Indian origin,it invents history and geography.But artificiality makes it prone to ridicule and intensifies the identity crisis.Keeping Kashmir on the boil gives it the rallying point and also allows it to deflects and deviate attention from its internal socio –economic and political crisis.It has been indulging in plausible deniability when it comes to terrorism in Kashmir.But every act of war that inflicts on India exposes its hand in violence in Jammu and Kashmir.We have been continuously arguing that the only viable strategy to stop the nefarious designs of Pakistan is to impose heavy cost on it.Pakistan must think twice before indulging in terrorist violence in Jammu and Kashmir.This can happen only when it knows that it will have to pay heavy price for its every act of war against India.This includes hitting the economic and agrarian interests of Pakistan.That is what has been done after the Cabinet Committee on Security(CCS) met in New Delhi after the arrival of the Home Minister from Kashmir.He was on a short visit to Kashmir to meet the families of the terror victims at Pahalgam who lost their loved ones to gain the first hand assessment of the unfortunate carnage.The CCS that met under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi has taken decisive steps to cut Pakistan to Size.Conveying the decisions taken to send a strong signal to Pakistan,Indian Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri while addressing the media has said that several steps have been taken in response to the terror attack to reflect the seriousness of the situation and India’s commitment to zero-tolerance approach to terrorism.The most significant step is the suspension of the Indus water Treaty(IWT) of 1960.India has made it abundantly clear that the treaty will remain on hold until Pakistan credibly and irrevocably abjures its support for cross-border terrorism. In another decision to cut Pakistan to size it has been decided to close the Attari Integrated Checkpost that is the crossing point between the two countries.At the same time the Pakistani nationals who have entered India with valid endorsements through this route will not be allowed to return before May 1.Another decision to penalise Pakistan includes that Pakistanis will no longer be permitted to travel to India under the SAARC visa exemption scheme.Previously issued Special Purpose Work Visa(SPES) have been cancelled.Not only that, the Pakistanis presently in India under this visa scheme have been asked leave the country within 48 hours.At the diplomatic level the defense, naval and air advisors at the Pakistani High Commission in New Delhi have been declared persona non grata and have been asked to leave India within a week.This war imposed on India will have to be fought at diplomatic and strategic level by imposing costs as the unconventional war will have to be fought with unconventional methods to defeat the enemy and uphold the territorial integrity and sovereignty of the Indian nation in Jammu and Kashmir.