NAILING THE PAHALGAM PERPETRATORS

India gives a fitting response by killing three Pakistani terrorists behind the April 22 Pahalgam attack, but a few questions remain

- PRADIP R. SAGAR

IF COINCIDENCE IS EVER WORTHY OF historical recall, it was here. After a hunt of 96 days—and, as it happened, exactly before a Parliament debate was to start on national security issues flowing from the April 22 Pahalgam massacre—the Pakistani terrorists who executed it were tracked down and killed in Kashmir. Their end came in the Dachigam forests near Srinagar, on the morning of July 28. Forensics confirmed their identity in another day, and the news broke just as Parliament started a two-day debate on Pahalgam and Operation Sindoor, the Indian military's retaliation against Pakistan.

Naturally, that blunted the Opposition's artillery, which had expected to fire away from a position of advantage, with a focused critique of lapses in intelligence, operational strategy and foreign policy. In the event, the Narendra Modi government's big guns managed to hold on to moral high ground, while tactfully sidestepping trickier questions like the Chinese collusion with Pakistan and the alleged loss of fighter jets.