MINING FOR PEACE IN PAKISTAN

Operation Sindoor not just rewrote the rules of engagement with Pakistan, but also brought into sharp focus South Asia's shifting strategic and economic balance. Is America's interest in mineral wealth also shaping this shift?

- SANJIB KR BARUAH AND NAMRATA BIJI AHUJA

As the clock struck 1:30pm on May 10, a shrill ring pierced the U-shaped office of Lt Gen Rajiv Ghai, the Army's director general of military operations (DGMO), at South Block in New Delhi. The call came on a designated hotline—manned 24x7—for instant, uninterrupted communication between the DGMOs of India and Pakistan. On the other end would typically be Maj Gen Kashif Abdullah, Ghai's Pakistani counterpart.

Normally, such calls take place on Tuesdays, serving to inform and coordinate routine military affairs. But this was no routine Tuesday. For the past three days, both militaries had been engaged in intensive operations involving fighter jets, missiles, drones and heavy artillery—triggered by the April 22 massacre of 26 civilians at Pahalgam in Kashmir by Islamabad-backed terrorists.

India had launched Operation Sindoor and Pakistan responded with Operation Bunyan Ul Marsoos (Iron Wall). When the call came, Ghai was unavailable, attending a meeting. The follow-up call came at 3:35pm, carrying a ceasefire offer. Islamabad had blinked first.

By that point, India had already secured its strategic objectives—military, political and psychological.

On the night of May 6-7, India had precision-struck nine key terror hubs across Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK) and deep inside Pakistan. New Delhi emphasised that the fight was not against the Pak military, but against terror. Pahalgam was a real escalation, it maintained; the counterstrikes were not.

The operation demonstrated that India had the capability to strike at will anywhere in Pakistan, even when its military was on high alert. Pakistan's retaliatory wave of drones and missile attacks was neutralised.