Operation Sindoor changed the dynamics of response mechanisms

The Pahalgam terror attack has irrevocably changed how India will henceforth address incidents of Pakistan-sponsored terrorist attacks.

- DHRUV C. KATOCH

Operation Sindoor, executed by India on the night of 6-7 May 2025, has transformed the dynamics of India's response mechanism to cross-border terrorism.

The horrific attack on tourists in Pahalgam on 22 April, where Pakistan-backed terrorists killed 26 people in cold blood after carrying out religious profiling, stirred the nation's conscience like never before.

With this act of terror, Pakistan had crossed the proverbial "Lakshman Rekha". A stunned nation demanded justice for the victims, and the Indian Prime Minister, in a message to the people of India and the world, delivered on 24 April in Bihar, stated unequivocally and unambiguously that the perpetrators of this heinous crime would be punished.

India had crossed the Rubicon. There was no turning back now, and the world awaited the Indian response with bated breath.

It was not long in coming. Fifteen days later, justice was served through Operation Sindoor.

Pakistan has used terrorism as a tool of its foreign policy since the 1980s.

India has remained restrained, reactive, and defensive in its responses to counter this threat, a strategy that has neither dissuaded nor deterred Pakistan.

The Indian leadership has made periodic efforts to achieve lasting peace, such as Prime Minister Vajpayee's famous bus trip to Lahore in February 1999.

However, that did not prevent the Pakistani establishment from violating the Simla Accord and launching an attack to capture the Kargil heights in the summer of that year.

When Prime Minister Modi took office in 2014, he initially sought peace with Pakistan, inviting Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif to his swearing-in and later visiting Lahore.

However, hopes of peace were dashed by the January 2016 Pathankot attack by Pakistan-backed terrorists, proving once again that Pakistan's military, not its civilian leadership, held absolute power.