Op Sindoor: PM Modi ends Pak's era of strategic denial

Indian defence planners believe that Pakistan's military was caught off guard by India's decision to directly target key strategic assets.

- ABHINANDAN MISHRA NEW DELHI

The military response that India carried out against Pakistan-based terror groups—and their patron, the Pakistan Army—has placed Pakistan's military planners under pressure from jihadist factions, especially the Jaish-e-Mohammad.

The group has repeatedly announced its intention to avenge the deaths of its cadre, including close associates of its chief, Maulana Masood Azhar, who were killed in the Indian airstrike in Bahawalpur.

There is rising concern within Pakistan's General Headquarters (GHQ) that overt restraint against Jaish could fracture the military—terrorist equilibrium that Rawalpindi has cultivated for decades, risking internal blowback from groups it may no longer fully control.