Terror crosses borders, so must consequences

Hindustan Times

03-05-2025

In the orchestra of global affairs, silence is complicity. John F Kennedy famously said, 'Geography has made us neighbours. History has made us friends. Economics has made us partners and necessity has made us allies. Those whom God has so joined together, let no man put asunder.'
India needs to roar to teach a few strong and reverse lessons on geography, history, and economics to its neighbour. When violence, criminality, and bloodshed cross borders, no country can afford to remain a silent spectator. Enough of playing second fiddle to global laziness, it is time to draw the bow and create a symphony of consequences.
Firstly, Pakistan needs to be hit at its most vulnerable nerve — its economic underbelly. The economy is the spinal cord of any terror network, and Pakistan's is no exception. Instruments such as the Generalized System of Preferences (GSP)+ status (European Union giving trade preferences to countries, including Pakistan) and the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) Grey List (penalising nations promoting terrorism) must be leveraged against Pakistan. Yet, the real rot lies deeper. The UN Drugs and Crime Office (UNODC) has underlined that close to 90% of the raw material for heroin originates from Afghanistan. Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) transports this opium, processes it into heroin, and rakes in blood money — fortunes that are then laundered abroad and funnelled into terror coffers. India must declare an all-out war on this narcotics empire. A coordinated strike — with the Border Security Force, the Indian Navy, Coast Guard and other agencies — should choke the drug routes at sea and land, cutting off the oxygen supply to the ISI's terror tentacles. As is said, 'Cut off the head of the snake, and the body will wither.'
Thirdly, at the global stage, we must redouble our efforts to hold Pakistan accountable under UN Security Council Resolutions 1267 and 1373 — mechanisms designed to cripple terrorism at its source.
Fourthly, it is high time the UN Military Observer Group in India and Pakistan be shown the door. If diplomatic eviction is not immediately feasible, India must ban its operations outright. This toothless tiger has prowled aimlessly for decades — now, it must kick the bucket once and for all.
Fifthly, Pakistan remains a cauldron of cruelty at the internal front. Ethnicities and communities like the Hazaras and Ahmadiyyas live under the sword arbitrary detentions and enforced disappearances. India must extend a similar moral and diplomatic embrace to these groups as also to the Uyghurs in China, who have repeatedly stood shoulder to shoulder with India, including after Pahalgam. As the idiom goes, 'Charity begins at home, but justice must travel far and wide.'
Sixthly, another layer of danger emerging is the unholy trinity of Pakistan, Turkey, and Malaysia. This axis, masquerading as saviours of the Ummah, has historically left a trail of blood — from the Armenian genocide to the persecution of Greeks, Assyrians, and now Kashmiris. Meanwhile, Saudi Arabia and its allies have blossomed into India's strategic and cultural partners. India must not merely stand at the crossroads; it must take the high road by creating a coalition of civilisations — a league of nations that have been victims of genocides and terrorism, united not by grievances alone, but by a shared pledge to anti-terror memory and justice.
Seventhly, while the world erects grand memorials — the Holocaust Museum in Washington, the Armenian Genocide Museum in Yerevan — India remains amnesiac about the horrors inflicted upon it. The time is ripe for a Terror Museum in Srinagar — a living, breathing testimony to Pakistan's decades-long jihad against Kashmir and India. Let the world bear witness. Let history be etched in marble and memory.
Eighthly, India must actively support the dissident voices from Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK) and Gilgit-Baltistan. Those hounded out by Pakistan's Punjabi-dominated military elite must be empowered to establish governments-in-exile. If Jawaharlal Nehru could lay the groundwork for the Tibetan government-in-exile in the 1950s, the Narendra Modi government can surely walk in those footsteps today.
Lastly, India must unleash its digital warriors. Even more than human intelligence, we are among the best in technical intelligence. There is also a need to launch a digital strike. Without firing a single bullet, we can paralyse enemy infrastructure, leak military secrets, and confound adversary narratives. As the winds of digital warfare blow stronger, India must remember: When terror crosses borders, so must consequences — swiftly, silently, and surgically.
In this long-drawn chess game of survival and supremacy, India must think three moves ahead. We must not only play defence but also script an audacious offensive across land, seas, airwaves, and public minds. For too long, Pakistan has mistaken our patience for passivity. It is time to break the illusion, hit hard wherever and whenever necessary, and exhibit the might of India. The process of these nine initiatives must be a continuous, ongoing process, not a reactive move against another Uri or Pahalgam. History is unkind to those who stand at the water's edge, watching the tides of change pass by them. It rewards those who ride the storm and reshape the shoreline.
Abhishek Singhvi is a fourth term MP, jurist, former chair, Parliamentary Standing Committees on Commerce, Law and Home, and former additional solicitor general of India. He is also member, Congress Working Committee, senior national spokesperson, Congress, and chair of the party's department on law, human rights & RTI. Akash Kumar Singh is a PhD scholar at the Special Centre for National Security Studies, JNU and a former LAMP fellow. The views expressed are personal