What India Must Do To Stave Off Terror Attacts!

With Pakistan’s ‘deep state’ shifting gears to target military installations and India’s new resolve to strike back, securing the bases has never been a higher priority.

- Sandeep Unnithan

If India colour-Coded its threat levels like the US department of homeland security does, the colour this month would be red, for an imminent attack. On September 29, Indian special forces raided terrorist launch pads in Pakistan­Occupied Kashmir (PoK) taking the battle to the enemy on his own ground. The raid killed an unspecified number of terrorists who the army says were planning strikes inside Jammu and Kashmir, in vari­ous metros and other states.

Now, as the security establish­ment tinkers with new strategies to defeat the menace, it is bracing for a blowback from the Pakistani ‘deep state’—the ISI and its army of terror­ists. A senior Indian army official says there is a high chance of a retaliatory attack, following the recent pattern of striking Indian military targets.

The air force, for instance, has 54 major air bases, the navy has seven air bases, five major naval bases, eight naval stations and four ammunition depots across the country. The army has over a thousand logistic bases in J&K with over 200 installations locat­ed in the Valley alone. Once a military perimeter is breached, the targets of opportunity are abundant. It could be groups of unarmed soldiers or, in the case of an air force base, stationary aircraft or helicopters.

“There are literally thousands of targets in Jammu and Kashmir…it doesn’t matter if it is an administra­tive area or headquarters, a supply station or a company operating base. We have to accord all of them equal priority to defeat a terror attack,” a senior army official says.