How to make Pakistan pay for Pahalgam carnage: The hard options
(NOTE: This was originally published in the India Today issue dated May 5, 2025)AIR STRIKESThe obvious reference point is India's air strike in 2019 following the Pulwama attack, where 12 Mirage jets fooled the Pakistan Air Force, made a deep ingr ess and bombed a JeM camp in Balakot, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, inviting retaliatory air strikes from Pakistan in J&K. The IAF's Rafale jets (in pic) are one of the best multirole fighters, so this is an option. India's strike can be at the LeT headquarters in and around Muridke.advertisementFallout: After the Pahalgam incident, Pak is tan is said to have moved more of its air assets to Lahore and Rawalpindi. Its Airborne and Early Warning and Control (AEW&C) aircraft are also watching the Indian airspace.
MISSILE ATTACKSInstead of mobilising for a conventional conflict, India could target terror launch-pads/ training centres in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir and elsewhere with surface-to-surface short-range tactical missiles like Prithvi, Pralay (in pic) and Shaurya, all of which are ideal for hitting strategic targets across the border.Fallout: Pakistan's terror infrastructure can be in camps in pro xi m ity to those of the armed forces. If an Indian missile strike hits a Pak army unit, it will lead to a wider conflagration. Also, the worry is that Pakistan has missiles with tactical nuclear weapons.REDUCING FLOW OF INDUS WATERSadvertisementIndia has already suspended the Indus Waters Treaty that apportions the rivers of the Indus system among the two countries. While this wouldn't immediately affect Pakistan, if India does disrupt or divert the flow of water by building canals or dams, lower riparian regions in Pakistan's Punjab and Sindh would be seriously affected.Fallout: Pakistan has declared that any atte mpt to div ert Indus waters would be 'an act of war'.SURGICAL STRIKESThe Indian army's special forces or commando units can cross the LoC, attack Jaish-e-Mohammed/Lashkar-e-Toiba terror camps . This is exactly what happened after the Uri attack in September 2016, when Indian commandos conducted a series of strikes and claimed that they had taken out 150-odd terrorists.Fallout: Once bitten already, Pakistan army units along the border will be on high alert to such an eventuality. A surgical strike could actually be employed in conjunction with an air attack on the terror infrastructure.DIPLOMATIC PRESSUREPakistan, with its long, dubious record in harbouring terror groups, has spent three periods in the 'grey list' of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), the global watchdog on terror financing and money laundering, the latest being 2018-22. Pakistan is surviving on IMF loans, so another spell on the FATF list would be calamitous.advertisementFallout: After Pahalgam, India has the supp ort of all major countries; our diplomats are briefing them too. Pakistan has reason to exp ect a diplomatic blitzkrieg. Another option is to paralyse their economy by enforcing a blockade by the Indian Navy on its ports. But that would be considered an act of extreme hostility, akin to declaration of war.—with Pradip R. SagarSubscribe to India Today Magazine
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