AI-driven security

The question India must now ask calmly, seriously, and strategically is this: how can India predict and prevent the next zero-day attack? The answer lies not just in more boots on the ground, but in more intelligence, more integration, and more technology. India must now make a decisive shift toward Al-enhanced national security learning from global counterparts like israel and the United States

- NARAIN BATRA

On April 22, the pristine calm of Baisaran Valley near Pahalgam was ruptured by violence of the most brutal kind.

In what is now being called the deadliest civilian-targeted terrorist attack in India since 2008, twenty-six tourists, including a child and a Nepalese national, were murdered in cold blood by militants claiming allegiance to the Resistance Front (TRF), a known proxy of Lashkar-e-Taiba of Pakistan.

This was not just an act of horrendous terror. For India, it was a catastrophic intelligence failure, a security breach of the highest order, and a national tragedy with profound strategic consequences.

India, a nuclear-armed state with one of the world's largest standing militaries and a formidable intelligence network, failed to foresee an attack in one of the most heavily patrolled and sensitive regions of the country.

This is India's "zero-day" event, a term borrowed from cybersecurity, referring to a previously unknown vulnerability exploited by attackers before a patch can be issued. Kashmir's picturesque facade had, perhaps, lulled policymakers into a misplaced sense of normalcy. But beneath it, as this attack showed, lay dormant terror networks waiting for their opportunity.

The question India must now ask—calmly, seriously, and strategically is this: how can India predict and prevent the next zero-day attack? The answer lies not just in more boots on the ground, but in more intelligence, more integration, and more technology. India must now make a decisive shift toward AI-enhanced national security, learning from global counterparts like Israel and the United States, who have integrated artificial intelligence deeply into their counterterrorism frameworks.