Non-military options

India is rightly deploying other measures also to make Pakistan pay for its cross-border transgressions

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India on Friday abstained from voting on a fresh loan tranche to Pakistan of $1.3 billion, after raising serious concerns over the efficacy of International Monetary Fund programmes for a country with a "poor track record". Last year India had asked the Fund to place caveats that such loans are not used by a sponsor of terror for arms purchases. Due to a stressed balance of payments situation, Pakistan secured a $7 billion bailout programme from the Fund last year and was granted a $1.3 billion climate resilience loan in March. This outreach not just to the IMF but also the World Bank and Asian Development Bank constitutes an important element of non-military options being exercised by India to make Pakistan pay for its cross-border transgressions of April 22. There are no prizes for guessing whether the IMF would heed India's red-flagging funding to Pakistan.