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New Indian Express

Operation Sindoor: Paradigm shift from candle lights to BrahMos

And finally BrahMos A humiliated Pakistan lost all its senses and struck through LeT's proxy TRF at the unguarded tourist spot in Pahalgam. Worse, it killed tourists after checking their religion and confirming that as mandated by Islamic theology, which governs Pakistan, they killed only Kafirs, that is Hindus. Their theology did not say they should do it in front of the victims' wives and children. But they did that too. Modi vowed India will chase the beastly terrorists, their backers and funders to the ends of the earth and bury them in the soil – an open political direction to the Indian defence, intelligence and diplomatic community. It needed no political pundit to deduce that the PM's direction was to hit terrorist camps in Pakistan. The heart-rending terror left no option to the political system and the leadership but to declare an open war against terror. But this was unlike the US-led war on terror directed against a state – the invasion of Afghanistan. Our war on terror was not to be and could not be an open war against the state of Pakistan. But technically any attack on the terror camps in Pakistan, which are an extension of the state and the army, was an attack on the state of Pakistan itself. Modi knew that attacking the terror bases in Pakistan would invite a war with the mad Pakistan with nukes in its hands. Yet he decided to initiate that war by his open direction to hit the terror bases, which was like declaring a war and notifying Pakistan 'we are going to hit you'. To execute an openly declared mission, which deprived the Indian army of the surprise element needed for the attack to succeed, was indeed a daunting challenge, as the enemy would be fully prepared to thwart it. Also since it was an openly declared cross-border attack, besides military preparation, it called for extremely skilful diplomatic manoeuvre to gain the support of the major powers of the world for the operation and to minimise opposition. Within 15 days of the Pahalgam slaughter, Team Modi comprising the tri-forces, intelligence and diplomacy spectacularly accomplished the explicitly declared mission by hitting nine terror bases in Pakistan and killed over 100 jihadis. This time, it was no gun shot as in PoK. No aerial bombing as in Balakot. Modi upgraded his response to the barbaric Pakistan terror to another level — to BrahMos missiles. How could Modi transform the anti-terror mission, kept secret to launch surprise attacks on terror camps in PoK in 2016 and in Balakot in 2019, into an open and notified mission in 2025 and succeed in it? His preparations for 2025 started after Balakot in 2019 when he realised that an altogether new non-contact war model was needed to target not just terror but its sponsor, Pakistan. The next part is about how the Indian army, air force and navy masterfully and professionally executed that openly declared mission against terror and how they excelled even Israel in an Israel-model attack. S Gurumurthy Editor, Thuglak Tamil Magazine. Chairman, Vivekananda International Foundation Strategic Think Tank.