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First Post
a day ago
- Politics
- First Post
Operation Sindoor: For India, deterrence lies in hard military power
Operation Sindoor has proved that conventional power, wielded with precision, can eliminate threats and convey a message without the attendant fear of a mushroom cloud read more From Left to Right: Air Marshal AK Bharti, Director General (DG) of Air Force Operations, DG of Military Operations Lieutenant General Rajiv Ghai, and DG of Naval Operations, Vice Admiral AN Pramod at a press briefing for Operation Sindoor. May 11, 2025. File image. After 88 hours of clinical and precision strikes, the Indian Armed Forces, who had been given full 'operational freedom', achieved their objectives in a calibrated, controlled and decisive manner. What also stood out in an era of unending conflicts was the wise drawing of a finish line. Operation 'Sindoor' represented an evolution in our war-fighting doctrine, showcasing the capability and ability of our Armed Forces. There was a marked escalation in the scope, intensity and precision targeting compared to India's earlier responses to terror attacks. Soon after the prime minister articulated India's 'new normal'. The doctrine was clear and unambiguous. This watershed moment marked the unveiling of a new national security posture, one that treats state-sponsored terrorism as an act of war. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD Parliament, Mumbai, Pathankot, Uri, Pulwama and now Pahalgam all had one thing in common: Pakistan's use of terror as an instrument of state policy, but now the Indian armed forces had drawn the 'sindoor line' and targeted terror sites in the heartland of Pakistani Punjab, literally going for Pakistan's 'jugular'. The fact is that India's actions were aimed at forcing Pakistan to change its behaviour as far as using terrorism as an instrument of state policy is concerned. The question remains as to whether our political will and military action have ensured deterrence. Understanding Deterrence The challenge of deterrence, implying discouraging states from taking unwanted actions, especially military aggression, is a principal theme of a nation's defence policy. In his press briefing after the initial operation, the Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri stated that Pakistan's failure 'to take action against the terrorist infrastructure on its territory' necessitated a military operation 'to deter and to preempt'. Deterrence can be further amplified as the practice of discouraging or restraining someone in world politics, usually a nation-state, from taking unwanted actions. It involves an effort to stop or prevent an action, as opposed to the closely related but distinct concept of 'compellence', which is an effort to force it to do something. If a state considers attacking an adversary but refrains due to concern over that adversary's military power, it has been deterred. Deterrence typically takes two forms: deterrence by denial and deterrence by punishment. Deterrence by denial strategies seeks to deter an action by making it infeasible or unlikely to succeed, thus denying a potential aggressor confidence in attaining its objectives by deploying sufficient local military forces to defeat a design, in other words, convincing an adversary that its attack would be unsuccessful because it would be physically blocked. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD Whereas deterrence by punishment, on the other hand, threatens severe penalties if an attack occurs. It is based on the threat of imposing costs through retaliation. Steps taken include placing significant military capabilities directly in the path of an aggressor, which speaks loudly and clearly. Deterrence is usually unnoticed by the public since it is about preventing aggression rather than taking visible action. However, crises reveal where and how deterrence is failing or succeeding, since visible military decisions are now made public. India earlier deterred terror attacks attributed to militants based in Pakistan by threatening a conventional military response. Following the Parliament attack India mobilized its troops all across the border with Pakistan. As per Jaswant Singh 'the objective of India's mobilisation was to defeat cross border terrorism and infiltration without conflict'. Pakistan, in turn, looked to prevent retaliatory conventional military action through the threat of nuclear weapons. The fact is that if these terrorist incidents keep happening at a regular pace followed by India's retaliation, it suggests there were gaps in deterrence. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD The failure of deterrence has led to leaders and policymakers sometimes referring to military operations as being designed to 'restore deterrence'. However, even this can be a misleading phrase, as Professor Debak Das of the University of Denver states, 'There may be something wrong with the method of deterrence'. Over the coming weeks and months, analysts and policymakers will assess how successful both sides' military operations were in restoring deterrence, a key question with the potential to shape regional security dynamics going forward. Nuclear Deterrence The most powerful deterrent a state can possess is nuclear weapons. Soon after the development of nuclear weapons, scholars argued that these capabilities were so powerful that no two nuclear-armed states would dare to fight one another. In other words, they would be deterred from doing so. But while nuclear weapons may ensure stable deterrence at the strategic or nuclear level, instability and conflict are likely to occur at lower levels because both sides believe in controlling escalation till that point. This led to Pakistan feeling there was space to conduct a sub-conventional proxy war against India. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD India has taken action to punish Pakistan militarily in response to terror attacks. Notable examples have included Operation Parakram in 2001; the development of the Cold Start military doctrine intended to quickly capture territory to extract concessions; 'surgical strikes' across the Line of Control in 2016; and the airstrike at Balakot in 2019. Each response pushed the envelope further both vertically and horizontally, displaying the ability to impose costs within a nuclear overhang. Following Pahalgam, India dramatically increased the scope of its military action against Pakistan in response to terrorism. This represented an expansion in its willingness to conduct conventional operations beneath the nuclear threshold. Operation Sindoor has proved that conventional power, wielded with precision, can eliminate threats and convey a message without the attendant fear of a mushroom cloud. Pakistan's military-backed terrorist groups would no longer be able to operate with impunity, secure in the knowledge that India won't risk nuclear escalation. Pakistan's space for nuclear deterrence has been shrunk due to India's non-contact kinetic actions facilitated by newer technologies. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD Escalation During Operation Sindoor What was witnessed were multiple rounds of retaliation, including strikes on major military bases, and the use of capabilities never previously employed between the two countries. On the opening day of strikes, the Indian Armed Forces demonstrated the ability to identify and destroy terrorist-linked infrastructure in Pakistani territory, employing stand-off weapons to deliver precision strikes at speed without crossing the international border. The intent was clear: India was focused on degrading the terrorist ecosystem that exists in Pakistan. In the following days, operations expanded in scope, as Pakistan chose to retaliate, and India then penetrated Pakistan's Chinese-supplied air defence network to target selected airbases for the first time since the 1971 war. Further India's multi-layered air defence ensured the security of Indian airspace by eliminating Pakistani drones and missiles. Operation Sindoor was a calibrated use of force, intended to signal resolve, degrade terrorist infrastructure, demonstrate capability, and impose costs for supporting terrorism. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD Escalation control depends on taking carefully calibrated actions in the fog of war. As per Walter Ladwig of RUSI, 'This conflict illustrates that limited military engagement under the shadow of nuclear weapons can be contained provided escalation thresholds are mutually understood, signalling remains disciplined, and objectives are narrowly defined.' Application of Military Power Operation Sindoor demonstrated India's ability to apply military power with restraint and precision. India's signal of intent to retaliate against cross-border terrorism marks a clear shift in posture. Yet deterrence by punishment carries inherent risks – chief among them the possibility that fringe actors may attempt to provoke confrontation in order to manipulate state responses. Hence, in a strategic environment shaped by tempo, perception, and public pressure, preserving space for discretion may be as vital as projecting resolve, particularly when domestic audiences may expect increasingly forceful responses in the wake of future provocations. Equally salient is the operational challenge of maintaining the effectiveness of coercive military action over time. As targeted groups adapt, dispersing their assets, improving their concealment techniques, and altering their operational rhythms, the demands placed on India's intelligence and targeting means will intensify. An iterative contest of adaptation may also play out in which each side seeks to outpace the other's capacity for detection and response. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD Conclusion As the damage to Pakistani assets increased and their vulnerabilities were exposed, the Pakistani DGMO reached out over the hotline to his Indian counterpart in asking for a ceasefire. There was no doubt that India had achieved its stated objectives. Its decisive response was not a product of improvisation but due to the professionalism of Indian armed forces and the result of structural reforms and investment in India's defence capabilities to include doctrines, weapon systems and infusion of cutting-edge technologies. The contours of its response toolkit had been redefined. The instrument of force was now more calibrated and precise. There is no doubt that in future, India's response in degrading assets enabling terrorism will be of a greater magnitude. Given the fact that India was able to use force over a long trajectory and attack Pakistan at will with precision and lethality, degrading its capabilities. One of the lessons that stands out is that hard power matters, though building deterrence through hard power may be costly, but wars are even more costly, which is a lesson Europe is facing presently, having prematurely celebrated victory at the end of the Cold War by downsizing military structures and capabilities. Hence, there needs to be an urgency while addressing military imbalances, as despite being tactically and operationally successful, we cannot afford to be prone to coercion. Hard military power is the key. While India has demonstrated its muscular policy, the instrument of force needs to be continuously nourished to ensure that it always retains the element of deterrence. The author is a retired Major General of the Indian Army. Views expressed in the above piece are personal and solely those of the author. They do not necessarily reflect Firstpost's views.
India Today
a day ago
- General
- India Today
Pakistani dossier claims India hit more places. Propaganda?
While there has been a halt to hostilities between India and Pakistan following the May 10 truce, Islamabad seems to not have ceased what it does best: spreading propaganda. A dossier released by Pakistan, accessed by India Today, reveals India struck more places during Operation Sindoor that were not previously disclosed by Indian defence authorities. However, the devil lies in the dossier contains maps showing Indian strikes at key cities like Peshawar, Attock, Gujrat, Jhang, Bahawalnagar, Hyderabad, Chhor - locations that were not publicly mentioned by the armed forces during their press briefings. Some sites like Peshawar and Attock are over 1,000 km and 700 km away from the Line of Control. It begs a question. Why would Pakistan make public that India struck more sites than claimed?The broader objective might be to paint before the global community that India targeted civilian areas deep inside Pakistan. The dossier, however, does not mention if the targeted sites were civilian areas or military the sites were military bases, it sheds new light on the depth of India's attack, making it abundantly clear why Pakistan reached out for a ceasefire on May armed forces have mentioned on several occassions that they operated with precision to avoid civilian casualties. "Locations were selected to avoid damage to civilian infrastructure and loss of any civilian lives," the forces dossier specifically lists that only four air bases were targeted - Murid, Rafiqui, Masroor, and high-resolution commercial satellite images have shown damage to 11 military sites struck by India, including Nur Khan, Rafiqui, Murid, Sukkur, Parur, Chunian, Sargodha, Rahim Yar Khan, Bholari, Jacobabad, and the three-day hostilities, India also struck a radar site in Lahore, destroying an air defence system, and targeted the missile site at Malir Cantonment in Karachi. Malir Cantt is a military base about 35 km from the main Karachi General of Military Operations (DGMO) Lt. General Rajiv Ghai has stated that around 35-40 Pakistani military personnel were killed during Operation has also released video evidence of the nine terror camps it destroyed when it launched Operation Sindoor on May 7 in retaliation to the Pahalgam terror attack. The sites include the Jaish-e-Mohammed headquarters in Bahawalpur and the Lashkar-e-Taiba training centre in Watch
Time of India
a day ago
- General
- Time of India
Operation Sindoor: India's decisive victory — A moral imperative and beacon of global humanity
Tehseen Poonawalla is a Congress ideologue, lawyer, political analyst, social activist, life coach and a flourishing entrepreneur. He is also an avid reader of law, mythology, politics, and biographies of leaders, game-changers and histories of nations. LESS ... MORE In the relentless saga of India's fight against the insidious scourge of terrorism, Operation Sindoor stands tall—not merely as a military campaign but as a monumental testament to resilience, justice, and the unyielding spirit of humanity. This operation is a clarion call, echoing far beyond South Asia's borders, signifying India's unwavering resolve to uproot terror's poisonous roots nurtured on Pakistani soil. The harrowing attack in Pahalgam was a wound inflicted on the very soul of our nation — vibrant lives extinguished in a brutal instant, dreams shattered, families plunged into immeasurable grief. This was not just an isolated act of violence; it was the tragic crescendo of years of calculated, state-sponsored terror, fuelled by the venomous rhetoric of Pakistan's army chief, Asim Munir—recently elevated to Field Marshal amid global controversy. His incendiary words were not mere provocation; they were a deliberate assault on India's peace and social fabric, designed to sow fear and chaos. But India's response was nothing short of historic. Operation Sindoor was a masterclass in precision, courage, and strategic brilliance. Orchestrated with meticulous care by our intelligence and armed forces, it systematically dismantled terror networks that had long thrived with impunity. The reverberations of this operation shook Islamabad to its core, culminating in an extraordinary plea from Pakistan's Director General of Military Operations (DGMO) to India for a ceasefire—a tacit admission of India's overwhelming strength and Pakistan's vulnerability. Yet, this operation transcends bilateral conflict. It is a beacon of hope for global humanity. Terrorism, bred and nurtured within Pakistan's borders, is a malignant force threatening peace worldwide — from the crowded streets of Europe to the heart of America. By decisively targeting these terror hubs, India has not only safeguarded its own citizens but has taken a stand for international security and justice. In doing so, India asserts itself as a global sentinel against terror, defending humanity's most sacred right: the right to live free from fear and violence. The emotional gravity of this victory is profound. Every life lost in Pahalgam, every innocent soul taken, is a solemn call to action — a vow from millions of Indians to eradicate the darkness of hatred and violence. Operation Sindoor carries the weight of collective grief, yet it also embodies hope — hope for a future where children play without fear and communities thrive in peace. It sends a powerful, unyielding message: terrorism will be met with relentless courage, justice, and an indomitable will. This is India's defining hour — a righteous blow against tyranny and a luminous beacon for humanity worldwide. The global community must awaken to the significance of Operation Sindoor. This was not aggression but a necessary act of self-defence against a clear and present danger. The era of unchecked state-sponsored terrorism is over. India's decisive action demands global solidarity, unequivocal condemnation of terror sponsorship, and accountability for those who unleash destruction. Let Operation Sindoor be a rallying cry — a call for unity, resilience, and an unwavering commitment to confront terror wherever it lurks. In this battle against hatred and violence, India does not stand alone but speaks for every mother, every child, and every community yearning for a world where the sanctity of life is inviolable. This is not just a military campaign; Operation Sindoor is a moral victory — a profound service to humanity and a resounding testament to India's unshakable commitment to peace, justice, and the protection of innocent lives. The plea from Pakistan's DGMO for a ceasefire only underscores the magnitude of India's triumph and signals a transformative shift in regional security. Today, India stands tall — victorious, resolute, and humane — lighting the way toward a safer, more just world. Facebook Twitter Linkedin Email Disclaimer Views expressed above are the author's own.
NDTV
2 days ago
- Politics
- NDTV
Op Sindoor: Pak Dossier Shows India Struck More Targets Than Revealed
Quick Read Summary is AI generated, newsroom reviewed. A Pakistani dossier reveals India targeted more sites during Operation Sindoor than acknowledged, striking locations like Peshawar and Gujranwala. This revelation highlights India's deeper military reach in Pakistan, prompting a ceasefire request. New Delhi: India struck more Pakistan targets during Operation Sindoor than our forces acknowledged, an official dossier in Pakistan has revealed. The dossier on Pakistan's Operation Bunyan un Marsoos says India struck at least eight more targets than its forces referred to. The maps in the dossier show strikes on Peshawar, Jhang, Hyderabad in Sindh, Gujrat in Punjab, Gujranwala, Bhawalnagar, Attock and Chor. These locations were not named by the Indian Air Force or the Director General of Military Operations in the press briefings after the airstrikes last month. The new revelation reveals that India struck far deeper than it acknowledged and shows Operation Sindoor in a new light, making it abundantly clear why Pakistan reached out to India and requested a ceasefire. It also flies in the face of Islamabad's tall claims of inflicting heavy damage on Indian side. Map in Pakistan dossier The Indian military establishment has held detailed briefings, meticulously explaining the scale and depth of its counterstrike after the Pahalgam terror attack left 26 innocents dead. Against this backdrop, omitting these targets is likely a calculated strategy to let Pakistan reveal the full scale of damage and snuff out any possibility of Islamabad claiming otherwise. Earlier, satellite imagery released by Maxar Technologies had revealed the damage caused by precision strikes during Operation Sindoor. In its offensive against terrorist infrastructure in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir, India struck nine locations, including the Jaish-e-Mohammed headquarters in Bahawalpur and the Lashkar-e-Toiba training centre in Muridke. Other locations targeted in the May 7 strikes included Muzaffarabad, Kotli, Rawalakot, Chakswari, Bhimber, Neelum Valley, Jhelum, and Chakwal. Map in Pakistan dossier showing India attack on May 9/10 Despite India emphasising after the May 7 strikes that it had targeted only terror bases, Pakistan launched a volley of drones and missiles at civilian areas and military establishments across India's western side. India responded by striking Pakistan's military establishment. Eleven air bases were targeted -- these include Nur Khan, Rafiqui, Murid, Sukkur, Sialkot, Pasrur, Chunian, Sargodha, Skaru, Bholari and Jacobabad. The heavy damage left Pakistan with no choice but to seek a ceasefire, ending the three-day escalation. India has stressed that Operation Sindoor has drawn a big red line. Any terrorist act in India would now be seen as an act of war and invite tough action. Indian capabilities have been well-displayed during the recent conflict. And as the Pakistan dossier suggests, India struck deep and hard, more than what it acknowledged.
Al Bawaba
2 days ago
- General
- Al Bawaba
3 Israeli soldiers killed as Qassam Brigades strike forces and base in Gaza amid ongoing assault
ALBAWABA- Hebrew media have reported that three Israeli soldiers were killed and two others wounded after an anti-tank missile targeted a military vehicle in Jabalia, in the northern Gaza Strip. Also Read Gaza truce fails over unexpected Israeli Obstacles The evacuation operation failed due to intense gunfire in the area, according to Israeli sources. Three military helicopters were reportedly deployed to evacuate the casualties, but were unable to complete the mission amid heavy resistance, as Israeli helicopters returned fire heavily across the operational zone. Israeli media described the situation as a 'serious security incident' still unfolding in Jabalia. Meanwhile, the Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of Hamas, claimed responsibility for a series of attacks in southern Gaza, targeting both Israeli forces and military infrastructure. In a statement issued Monday, the Brigades said: "After returning from the front lines, Qassam fighters confirmed targeting a gathering of enemy forces east of al-Qarara, near Khan Younis, with thirteen mortar shells (120mm and 60mm)." They also reported launching three short-range 'Rajoum' rockets at the 'Ain al-Thalitha (Third Eye) Israeli military site east of Khan Younis on May 31. These strikes, the group stated, are part of the ongoing response to Israel's U.S.-backed war on Gaza, now in its twentieth consecutive month. In a new development, the Israeli army has ordered residents of four blocks in Khan Younis to evacuate immediately toward the western areas of the city. Since October 7, 2023, Israel has been accused of carrying out a campaign of mass killings, destruction, and forced displacement in Gaza. These actions, widely described by rights groups and some international bodies as genocidal, continue in defiance of global condemnation and multiple International Court of Justice rulings demanding a ceasefire. The toll so far includes over 178,000 Palestinians killed or wounded, the majority of them women and children, with more than 11,000 reported missing. Famine and mass displacement have also gripped the Strip, claiming more lives, including children, as the humanitarian crisis deepens.
