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As it is so often, Pakistan again performed the very reflexive belligerence following India’s precision led Operation Sindoor that was an anti terror operation to dismantle the terror camps across the Line of Control (LoC) and beyond. Instead of responding diplomatically or dealing with its decades long terror infrastructure, Pakistan has once again taken the path it has been following for decades, cowardly indiscriminately shelling civilian villages in the border districts of Rajouri and Poonch in Jammu and Kashmir. This act of vengeance without military purpose or proportion is a symptom of Pakistan’s habitual use of asymmetric provocations as a state policy: in lieu of dialogue, disruption; in lieu of the military’s honor, civilian’s harm. The global community must re-think Pakistan’s indulgence in actions unbecoming of a responsible state.
A heinous terror attack in Pahalgam, Kashmir occurred on April 22, 2025, which left Kashmir shaken as 26 innocent civilians were brutally killed by militants believed to be Jaish-e-Mohammed and Lashkar-e-Taiba (both Pakistan backed terror outfit). India responded quickly, strategically and measured. On May 7, Operation Sindoor was launched against nine terrorist hubs in PoK and Pakistan’s Punjab province: Bahawalpur, Muzaffarabad, Kotli and Muridke—all known to house training camps and logistical command for extremist activities. Indian forces neutralized critical facilities using Rafale jets armed with precision guided munitions, but without damaging the civilian infrastructure. The operation was first and foremost a counterterrorism operation, as the Indian Ministry of Defence confirmed that no Pakistani military installations were hit. Unsurprisingly, what was intended as a firm but responsible message of anti-terrorism was met with yet another case of Pakistani overreaction and deliberate endangerment of civilians.
Pakistani military units across the LoC then opened fire with heavy artillery on forward villages in the Poonch sector within minutes of the Indian strike. Mortar rounds rained down on civilian houses. Several villagers have been injured and their homes have been destroyed, and temporary displacement bunkers have been set up for those forced from their homes to flee Pakistan’s unprovoked aggression. Retaliate, in this way, against the unarmed rather than the armed, is emblematic of Pakistan’s posturing. That’s not the act of a confident, principled nation; it’s the act of a regime cornered by its own contradictions. It is one that is a victim of terrorism, yet one that shelters the same elements that propagate it. This isn’t the first time Pakistan has responded in this way. For decades, the Pakistani response to an Indian anti-terror operation has been a familiar, shameful pattern: The first denial, followed by deflection, and finally, disproportionate aggression against civilian populations in the near vicinity of the LoC.
After the turn of the millennium, Pakistan showed its cowardly face in warfare such as in the Kargil conflict. During Operation Badr, Pakistani soldiers and militants disguised as mujahideen fighters infiltrated Indian positions in Kargil. In Operation Vijay, when India pushed back, Pakistan not only denied its army’s participation in the conflict, but also disowned dead soldiers by refusing to claim the bodies retrieved on Indian soil. This was a show of moral and military bankruptcy. After the Uri attack in 2016, India carried out targeted surgical strikes on the terrorist launch pads along the LoC. Pakistan didn’t retaliate by hitting military positions, but rather upped the ante on ceasefire violations against civilian hamlets. Over the following weeks, dozens of civilians died, as houses were targeted. The Pulwama suicide attack was responded by India with an airstrike on Balakot in February 2019.Instead of cracking down on terror camps, Pakistan retaliated by trying to do what it could not tactically do: conduct an air strike on Indian military installations. During the process, Pakistan took Wing Commander Abhinandan Varthaman and released him under international pressure. However, the shelling of Indian villages by Pakistan was still unrelenting even at that time. In the border districts like Poonch and Kupwara, Pakistan committed over 4,000 ceasefire violations between 2020 and 2023. This aggression was targeted at civilians. In 2021, a mortar shell hit a classroom in Mendhar, killing four schoolchildren in an incident that was notable. Now Pakistan’s retaliatory formula had become part of its geopolitical DNA. Escalate against Indian civilians when cornered on terrorism to provoke outrage and force international mediation.
What is the reason Pakistan does not retaliate with military action against India’s exact anti terror missions? Its own military asymmetry and domestic instability is the answer. Pakistan’s deep state, with the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) and the army at its heart, has mastered a dual doctrine. nurtured terrorism as their instrument of foreign policy, while deflecting accountability by endangering civilians. Terrorist groups are “strategic assets” to the Pakistani establishment to be used against India. Rather than being dismantled, these groups are relocated, renamed, and repackaged. When the world is watching, their leaders slip into ‘protective custody’ and reappear months later. At the same time, there is a manufactured crisis by shelling Indian civilians. This serves to enable Pakistan to paint India as the aggressor and perpetuate a domestic discourse of resistance. The aim here is to blur the lines between terrorism and statecraft, an illusion that Pakistan has pulled off for decades.
After Operation Sindoor, Pakistan’s indiscriminate shelling has turned the border villages of Jammu and Kashmir, especially of Poonch and Rajouri, into conflict zones and not because of Indian aggression. Two civilians have died and 14 other civilians, including six children, have been hospitalized with critical injuries as of May 8. The irony is bitter: Still, while India carries out clean operations against the terrorists, Pakistan retaliates with blind fury. Terrified villagers have been seen hiding in underground bunkers, schools closed indefinitely, and farmers giving up on spring harvests. This is not retaliation, it is state terror from artillery.
The global community has changed in tone and recognition over the years. The response post Sindoor has been markedly nuanced, while earlier conflicts saw calls for ‘both sides’ to exercise restraint. India’s right to defend itself from terrorism was emphasized by the U.S. State Department, while France said it is important Pakistan acts decisively against terror actors on its soil. For Pakistan, such diplomatic signals are a slow, but certain erosion of its credibility on the global stage.
India’s Operation Sindoor was a morally justified and militarily prudent blow against terror. While Pakistan’s retaliation was a grotesque exhibition of cowardice. Shelling civilians to hide terror lords, targeting innocents to hide its duplicity, claiming victimhood while fomenting violence. The world must understand: India’s fight is not with the people of Pakistan but with a state that continues to learn nothing from terrorism as a strategy. Each shell that Pakistan fires into an Indian village is a reminder that it has failed to move out of the role of a sponsor of extremism and into that of a responsible member of the international community. Defeat may be concealed by cowardice for a time, but history will always record those who stood firm with precision, purpose and principle. In that history, India stands tall; Pakistan, once again, hides behind smoke screens of its own making.
vaizzargar@rediffmail.com
