The Options on the Table Post Pahalgam

While the govt calibrates its response, some young Indians are trying to rescue Kashmir's tourist season. Kashmiris must show their usual support for the upcoming Amarnath Yatra

- Lt Gen Syed Ata Hasnain (Retd)

It’s only after two weeks of the terrible tragedy at Pahalgam that I am getting this opportunity to pen my thoughts for our readers here. Since I have a deep connect with the understanding of the dynamics of J&K, I wish to keep this article generic, to fit in as many thoughts and ideas as is possible without being restricted to just a few issues for analysis.

By now, the National Investigation Agency has done its initial probe and clearly established Pakistan’s complicity with the massacre. It was at the behest of the deep state, comprising in this case the Pakistan Army, the ISI and the leadership of the Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT), that it was carried out.

It’s important for readers to know why the deep state did it. There were enough reasons. The first is the outrageous perception that it was India which proxied the Baloch Liberation Army to execute the hijack of the Jaffar Express, which saw the death of a large number of Pakistan Army soldiers. Pahalgam was a revenge act for that presumption because it deeply hurt the already-eroded image of General Asim Munir, Pakistan’s army chief.

Second, the potential of Pakistan having a control over the situation in J&K as a stakeholder was fast weathering. A number of encounters in the Pir Panjal region could not achieve what a big act in Kashmir could.

Third, the nature of targeting seems to have borne the stamp of religious hatred, a quality well exhibited by Gen Munir during his hate speech delivered to a section of Pakistan’s diaspora at a special session just a few weeks ago. The intent behind the attack was obvious: to instigate a deep communal divide in India, leading to uncontrollable turbulence, and to tell the world and the Kashmiris that Pakistan’s Kashmir narrative was still alive.