Indian government warns: any future act of terror by Pakistan will be considered an act of war
By Aditya Bhagchandani Published on May 10, 2025, 16:42 IST
Any future act of terrorism with links to Pakistan will be treated as an act of war, and India will respond accordingly, top Indian government sources told DD India on Saturday.
This warning marks a significant shift in India's security doctrine amid continued Pakistani aggression. Over the last three nights, Pakistan has launched multiple drone and missile attacks on both military and civilian areas in northern India. However, nearly all of these threats have been neutralised by India's robust air defence network, officials noted.
The warning comes in the wake of the April 22 terror attack in Pahalgam, Jammu and Kashmir, where Pakistan-linked terrorists killed 26 tourists. In retaliation, India launched Operation Sindoor, executing precision cruise missile strikes on terror infrastructure located across Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Jammu and Kashmir (PoJK).
The Indian counterstrikes prompted further escalation from Pakistan, with its military launching drone and artillery attacks on Indian civilian areas. Intelligence inputs have confirmed that the Pakistani Army has been actively shielding terror infrastructure, particularly those linked to Lashkar-e-Taiba and Jaish-e-Mohammed, in areas adjacent to military cantonments in Pakistan and PoJK.
According to NDTV, elements within the Pakistani Army and the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) are providing logistical support, training, safe havens, and financial backing to terror operatives. Terrorists have been seen using Pakistan Army infrastructure, including restricted areas, as cover for movement and storage, effectively amounting to state-backed terrorism, NDTV reported.
Under the newly defined rules of engagement, any future terror act involving bombings, drone strikes, cyberattacks, biological or chemical attacks, hijackings, or attacks on critical government or military infrastructure will be deemed a declaration of war. The move aims to send a clear message not only to Pakistan but also to the international community about India's zero-tolerance policy toward state-sponsored terrorism.
India has also ramped up efforts to expose Pakistan's duplicity on the international stage—highlighting the contrast between the country's global posturing and its covert support for violent non-State actors, according to NDTV.
Aditya Bhagchandani serves as the Senior Editor and Writer at Business Upturn, where he leads coverage across the Business, Finance, Corporate, and Stock Market segments. With a keen eye for detail and a commitment to journalistic integrity, he not only contributes insightful articles but also oversees editorial direction for the reporting team.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
14 hours ago
UK to hold national inquiry into organized child sex abuse after pressure from Musk
LONDON -- The British government announced Saturday it will hold a national inquiry into organized child sexual abuse, something it has long been pressured to do by opposition politicians — and Elon Musk. Prime Minister Keir Starmer said he would accept a recommendation from an independent reviewer for a judge-led inquiry with the power to summon witnesses. Starmer said he would 'look again' and hold a probe into what the press have dubbed 'grooming gangs' of men who prey on often young and vulnerable women. In some of the most high-profile cases to come to trial, the perpetrators were men of Pakistani heritage, and the issue has been taken up by right-of-center politicians including Reform UK leader Nigel Farage, and stoked by Musk, who took to his X platform to condemn Starmer over the issue. Musk criticized Starmer for not backing a national inquiry into the matter following a request from the local authority in the northern English town of Oldham, where police found girls under 18 were sexually exploited by groups of men in the 2000s and 2010s. Musk also alleged that Starmer failed to bring perpetrators to justice when he was England's chief prosecutor between 2008 and 2013, a charge that the prime minister vigorously denied. Because the cases in Oldham and similar ones in several other towns involved predominantly white girls abused by men largely from Pakistani backgrounds, the issue has been used to link child sexual abuse to immigration, and to accuse politicians of covering up the crimes out of a fear of appearing racist. A 2022 report into what happened in the northwest England town of Oldham between 2011 and 2014 found that children were failed by local agencies, but that there was no cover-up despite 'legitimate concerns' that the far-right would capitalize on 'the high-profile convictions of predominantly Pakistani offenders across the country.' In January the government said it would support several local inquiries into child exploitation in cities where gangs of men were prosecuted. It had previously said there was no need for further investigations following a string of previous inquiries, both local and national. A seven-year inquiry was held under the previous Conservative government, but many of the 20 recommendations it made in 2022 — including compensation for abuse victims — have yet to be implemented. Starmer's government also asked Louise Casey, an expert on victim's rights and social welfare, to review previous findings. Her review has been submitted to the government but has not yet been published. 'I have never said we should not look again at any issue,' Starmer said as he flew to Canada for a Group of Seven summit. 'I have wanted to be assured that on the question of any inquiry. That's why I asked Louise Casey who I hugely respect to do an audit. 'Her position when she started the audit was that there was not a real need for a national inquiry over and above what was going on. She has looked at the material she has looked at and she has come to the view that there should be a national inquiry on the basis of what she has seen. 'I have read every single word of her report and I am going to accept her recommendation.' The main opposition Conservative Party offered a swift response. 'Those in authority deliberately covered up the systematic rape of thousands of girls as young as 10 because the perpetrators were mainly of Pakistani origin. They thought race relations were more important than protecting young girls,'' Conservative law and order spokesman Chris Philp said. 'The truth must now come out and people in positions of authority responsible for the cover up held to account.''
Los Angeles Times
14 hours ago
- Los Angeles Times
45 minutes to pack up a lifetime as Pakistan's foreigner crackdown sends Afghans scrambling
TORKHAM, Afghanistan — The order was clear and indisputable, the timeline startling. You have 45 minutes to pack up and leave Pakistan forever. Sher Khan, a 42-year-old Afghan, had returned home from his job in a brick factory. He stared at the plainclothes policeman on the doorstep, his mind reeling. How could he pack up his whole life and leave the country of his birth in under an hour? In the blink of an eye, the life he had built was taken away from him. He and his wife grabbed a few kitchen items and whatever clothes they could for themselves and their nine children. They left everything else behind at their home in Pakistan-controlled Kashmir. Born in Pakistan to parents who fled the 1979 Soviet invasion of Afghanistan and the ensuing war, Khan is one of hundreds of thousands of Afghans who have now been expelled. The nationwide crackdown, launched in October 2023, on foreigners who Pakistan says are living in the country illegally has led to the departures of almost 1 million Afghans already. Pakistan says millions more remain. It wants them gone. 'All our belongings were left behind,' Khan said as he stood in a dusty, windswept refugee camp just across the Afghan border in Torkham, the first stop for expelled refugees. 'We tried so hard [over the years] to collect the things that we had with honor.' Pakistan set several deadlines earlier this year for Afghans to leave or face deportation. Afghan Citizen Card holders had to leave the capital Islamabad and the city of Rawalpindi by March 31, while those with proof of registration could stay until June 30. No specific deadlines were set for Afghans living elsewhere in Pakistan. Khan feared that delaying his departure beyond the deadline might have resulted in his wife and children being hauled off to a police station along with him, which would have been a blow to his family's dignity. 'We are happy that we came [to Afghanistan] with modesty and honor,' he said. As for his lost belongings, 'God may provide for them here, as he did there.' At the Torkham camp, run by Afghanistan's Taliban government, each family receives a SIM card and 10,000 Afghanis ($145) in aid. They can spend up to three days there before having to move on. The camp's director, Molvi Hashim Maiwandwal, said some 150 families were arriving daily from Pakistan — far fewer than the roughly 1,200 families who were arriving about two months ago. But he said another surge was expected after the three-day Islamic holiday of Eid al-Adha that started June 7. Aid organizations inside the camp help with basic needs, including healthcare. Local charity Aseel provides hygiene kits and helps with food. It has also set up a food package delivery system for families once they arrive at their final destination elsewhere in Afghanistan. Aseel's Najibullah Ghiasi said they expected a surge in arrivals 'by a significant number' after Eid. 'We cannot handle all of them, because the number is so huge,' he said, adding that the organization was trying to boost fundraising so it could support more people. Pakistan accuses Afghans of staging militant attacks inside the country, saying assaults are planned from across the border — a charge Kabul's Taliban government denies. Pakistan denies targeting Afghans and maintains that everyone leaving the country is treated humanely and with dignity. But for many, there is little that is humane about being forced to pack up and leave in minutes or hours. Iran, too, has been expelling Afghans, with the UNHCR, the United Nations' refugee agency, saying on June 5 that 500,000 Afghans had been forced to leave Iran and Pakistan in the two months since April 1. Rights groups and aid agencies say authorities are pressuring Afghans into going sooner. In April, Human Rights Watch said police had raided houses, beaten and arbitrarily detained people and confiscated refugee documents, including residence permits. Officers demanded bribes to allow Afghans to remain in Pakistan, the group added. Fifty-year-old Yar Mohammad lived in Pakistan-controlled Kashmir for nearly 45 years. The father of 12 built a successful business polishing floors, hiring several workers. Plainclothes policemen knocked on his door too. They gave him six hours to leave. 'No way a person can wrap up so much business in six hours, especially if they spent 45 years in one place,' he said. Friends rushed to his aid to help pack up anything they could: the company's floor-polishing machines, some tables, bed-frames and mattresses, and clothes. Now all his household belongings are crammed into orange tents in the Torkham refugee camp, his hard-earned floor-polishing machines outside and exposed to the elements. After three days of searching, he managed to find a place to rent in Kabul. 'I have no idea what we will do,' he said, adding that he would try to re-create his floor-polishing business in Afghanistan. 'If this works here, it is the best thing to do.' Becatoros writes for the Associated Press.
The Hill
15 hours ago
- The Hill
UK to hold national inquiry into organized child sexual abuse after pressure from Musk
LONDON (AP) — The British government announced Saturday it will hold a national inquiry into organized child sexual abuse, something it has long been pressured to do by opposition politicians — and Elon Musk. Prime Minister Keir Starmer said he would accept a recommendation from an independent reviewer for a judge-led inquiry with the power to summon witnesses. Starmer said he would 'look again' and hold a probe into what the press have dubbed 'grooming gangs' of men who prey on often young and vulnerable women. In some of the most high-profile cases to come to trial, the perpetrators were men of Pakistani heritage, and the issue has been taken up by right-of-center politicians including Reform UK leader Nigel Farage, and stoked by Musk, who took to his X platform to condemn Starmer over the issue. Musk criticized Starmer for not backing a national inquiry into the matter following a request from the local authority in the northern English town of Oldham, where police found girls under 18 were sexually exploited by groups of men in the 2000s and 2010s. Musk also alleged that Starmer failed to bring perpetrators to justice when he was England's chief prosecutor between 2008 and 2013, a charge that the prime minister vigorously denied. Because the cases in Oldham and similar ones in several other towns involved predominantly white girls abused by men largely from Pakistani backgrounds, the issue has been used to link child sexual abuse to immigration, and to accuse politicians of covering up the crimes out of a fear of appearing racist. A 2022 report into what happened in the northwest England town of Oldham between 2011 and 2014 found that children were failed by local agencies, but that there was no cover-up despite 'legitimate concerns' that the far-right would capitalize on 'the high-profile convictions of predominantly Pakistani offenders across the country.' In January the government said it would support several local inquiries into child exploitation in cities where gangs of men were prosecuted. It had previously said there was no need for further investigations following a string of previous inquiries, both local and national. A seven-year inquiry was held under the previous Conservative government, but many of the 20 recommendations it made in 2022 — including compensation for abuse victims — have yet to be implemented. Starmer's government also asked Louise Casey, an expert on victim's rights and social welfare, to review previous findings. Her review has been submitted to the government but has not yet been published. 'I have never said we should not look again at any issue,' Starmer said as he flew to Canada for a Group of Seven summit. 'I have wanted to be assured that on the question of any inquiry. That's why I asked Louise Casey who I hugely respect to do an audit. 'Her position when she started the audit was that there was not a real need for a national inquiry over and above what was going on. She has looked at the material she has looked at and she has come to the view that there should be a national inquiry on the basis of what she has seen. 'I have read every single word of her report and I am going to accept her recommendation.' The main opposition Conservative Party offered a swift response. 'Those in authority deliberately covered up the systematic rape of thousands of girls as young as 10 because the perpetrators were mainly of Pakistani origin. They thought race relations were more important than protecting young girls,' Conservative law and order spokesman Chris Philp said. 'The truth must now come out and people in positions of authority responsible for the cover up held to account.'
