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Time of India
03-05-2025
- Politics
- Time of India
Terrorising hope: Pahalgam attack and the Pakistan army
Associate Fellow, Center of Policy Research and Governance, New Delhi. Final Year Doctoral Candidate, Centre for International Politics, Organisation and Disarmament, School of International Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi. LESS ... MORE The terrorist attack in Pahalgam in Jammu and Kashmir is not just an act of terror, it is a direct assault on the idea of normalcy. On April 22, 2025, when gunmen opened fire on tourists enjoying the meadows of Baisaran, they weren't merely executing an attack, they were sending a calculated message. The message was aimed not just at the state, but at society at large: that peace remains fragile, and that the symbols of progress are vulnerable. In recent years, the government has projected tourism and infrastructure as dual pillars of post-Article 370 Kashmir. The region, once characterized by conflict, was now being framed as a site of revival with record-breaking tourist arrivals (34 lakh in the year 2024 itself), infrastructure megaprojects, and even global visibility through events like the 2023 G20 summit in Srinagar. But these very successes have now become the targets. The TRF doctrine Militant groups, particularly The Resistance Front (TRF), have shifted strategy. Instead of focusing attacks on military installations or political leaders, they are going after soft civilian targets. The objective is no longer limited to damaging the state apparatus—it is about disrupting everyday life, eroding public confidence, and psychologically destabilizing communities. A case in point is the attack at the Z-Morh tunnel construction site in Ganderbal district on October 20, 2024. In this attack, six non-local labourers and one local doctor were killed. These individuals were not soldiers; they were contributors to a civilian infrastructure project meant to improve connectivity and economic opportunities in the region. By targeting a critical piece of infrastructure and those helping build it militants aimed to instill fear among workers, scare off future investments, and signal that even state-led development projects are not safe. This wasn't an assault on security forces; it was a direct strike on the idea that Kashmir can be rebuilt. TRF's tactical shift is neither spontaneous nor random. It has evolved over years. Emerging in the post-2019 landscape and widely considered to be a proxy of the Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba, TRF has built a pattern of attacking civilians who symbolize recovery, coexistence, and reintegration. In October 2021, the group orchestrated the assassination of Makhan Lal Bindroo, a prominent Kashmiri Pandit pharmacist in Srinagar. He was a figure of quiet resilience—a returnee who had stayed on in Kashmir, committed to his work and his community. TRF's message was clear: no symbol of peaceful return would be spared. Through 2023, they expanded this pattern, targeting migrant labourers from other states who had come to Kashmir for construction, agriculture, and retail jobs. These labourers were building roads, bridges, and homes quite literally laying the foundation for a new Kashmir. By 2024, this strategy had matured into a consistent doctrine of terror that goes beyond the battlefield. In both the Pahalgam attack and the Ganderbal tunnel killings, the victims represented a hopeful trajectory. They were tourists, workers, and professionals—ordinary people whose presence signified progress. The violence directed at them was a calculated attempt to fracture that narrative. India must recognize that this is no longer a conventional security problem alone. This is narrative warfare. Militants are attacking not just lives but ideas – ideas of trust, of unity, of belonging. The notion that Kashmir is healing is what they seek to rupture. To meet this evolved threat, India needs an evolved response. Conventional counterinsurgency is no longer enough. What's needed now is a dual-deterrence doctrine—one that targets both the ideological ecosystem that sustains militancy and the tactical apparatus that enables it. Qualitative deterrence: Exposing the Pakistan Army's proxy empire India must adopt a doctrine of qualitative deterrence—not focused on battlefield metrics, but on the systemic erosion of legitimacy for Pakistan's military-jihadi complex. The Pakistan Army, which already struggles for legitimacy within its own borders, must no longer be treated globally as a professional force. Its self-assigned role as the 'guardian of Pakistan's ideology' has steadily mutated into an Islamist-authoritarian enterprise, where generals act as messianic clerics and ideological commissars, demands exposure. India must lead a strategic campaign to delegitimise this force, diplomatically, informationally, and symbolically. The aim is clear: strip the Pakistan Army of the legitimacy it holds in multilateral forums. A military that fuels jihad cannot enjoy the privileges of a professional force under Geneva Convention while advancing the politics of holy war. Qualitative deterrence is about making the ideology behind Pakistan's terror proxies a global liability—not just an Indian security concern. Quantitative deterrence: Imposing real costs India must simultaneously adopt a doctrine of quantitative deterrence – focused on imposing measurable, escalating costs on those who plan and execute terror operations. This means not just targeting proxy jihadi commanders, but also targeting the ISI regulars—the military planners and field operatives who enable, fund, and direct these attacks. India should be prepared to act both overtly and covertly, deploying calibrated strikes, surgical eliminations, and deep penetration intelligence missions. The goal is simple: make each act of terrorism operationally expensive and personally dangerous for its architects. While qualitative deterrence shatters the ideological facade, quantitative deterrence bleeds the system dry logistically, tactically, and psychologically. It sends a clear message: no terror plot will come without proportional consequence, and no uniform will guarantee immunity if it's worn in the service of jihad. Make deterrence a daily practice, and hope a national policy To make deterrence real, India must anchor it in everyday practice. This means smarter, intelligence-led policing, not just heavier deployments. It means treating worker colonies, tourist hubs, and construction sites as strategic spaces, protected through surveillance, emergency protocols, and civic coordination. And it means countering digital propaganda with local narratives that affirm resilience over fear. If deterrence is strategy, then protecting hope must be policy—and together, they are the only true counter to a terror that thrives on fear, not firepower. Facebook Twitter Linkedin Email Disclaimer Views expressed above are the author's own.
India Today
28-04-2025
- Politics
- India Today
Pahalgam attack spotlights Pakistan's terror strategy in post-Article 370 Kashmir
The massacre of 26 people, mostly tourists, in Pahalgam has spotlighted Pakistan's recalibrated terror strategy against India in the aftermath of Jammu and Kashmir's special status being altered by the abrogation of Article 370 of the Indian Constitution in August April 22 carnage at the expansive Baisaran meadow, popular as 'mini Switzerland', has been claimed by The Resistance Front (TRF), a proxy terror group of the Pakistan-backed Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT). The killings have invited strong condemnation from around the world and prompted a series of diplomatic and strategic responses from India, with Prime Minister Narendra Modi declaring that the perpetrators and their backers will be pursued and say that with intensified security operations stifling terrorists in the Kashmir Valley, Pakistan has redirected its proxy terror war to exploit vulnerabilities south of the Pir Panjal range in the Jammu sector—an area historically less militarised and relatively peaceful. In the past three to four years, this tactical shift has spurred deadly attacks on security forces and civilians in Pahalgam killings mark a chilling escalation in this violence. Experts say the attack, suspected to be masterminded by LeT commander Saifullah Kasuri and executed by a group of local and Pakistani operatives, indicates Pakistan's all-out intent to disrupt Jammu and Kashmir's evolving stability and tourism-driven economy in the post-Article 370 phase. Last year, the people of J&K voted to elect a new government, which was preceded by parliamentary elections in the The Pahalgam attack has reignited the age-old border tensions with Pakistan. The eruption of firing on the Line of Control (LoC) means the 2021 ceasefire pact between the two militaries lies shredded. Experts feel India's robust response, in the form of suspension of the 1960 Indus Waters Treaty, closing of land borders and intensifying of counterterror operations, signals a new phase of confrontation even as security forces hunt for the Baisaran say the TRF was floated by terror handlers in Pakistan as a shadow outfit, using the cadre of LeT, Hizbul Mujahideen (HM) and other militant groups, with the active support of 'Over Ground Workers' in J&K. Offshoot groups like the TRF aim to give a 'homegrown'/'indigenous'/'native' face to terrorism in other terror groups have also been created by Pakistan's deep state, such as The People's Anti-Fascist Force (PAFF), Joint Kashmir Front (JKF) and Jammu and Kashmir Ghaznavi Force (JKGF). Experts say changing the names of terror outfits is aimed at hiding their Islamic footprint and gives Pakistan the advantage of denying complicity while trying to mask terrorism in J&K as home-grown another strategy, Pakistan, in recent years, has begun the trend of releasing maps with the whole of Kashmir as its own territory. Islamabad has also started calling J&K 'Indian illegally occupied Jammu and Kashmir' instead of 'India occupied Kashmir'.advertisementRaised in 2019, the TRF has gained prominence over the past two years as a 'homegrown movement' even when its activities have all the markings of LeT, a terror group responsible for some of the deadliest attacks in India. The TRF has been involved in planning attacks on security forces and civilians, coordinating and transporting weapons to proscribed terrorist organisations, recruitment of terrorists and their infiltration, as well as smuggling of weapons and a proxy outfit of the Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM), was formed in 2019. It has been involved in radicalisation of youth for terror recruitment and arms training, issuing threats to security forces, political leaders as well as civilians from other parts of the country working in J&K, and running social media narratives to stoke terrorist violence in J&K and surfaced in 2020 as a terrorist outfit and draws its cadre from banned terror outfits, such as LeT, JeM, Tehreek-ul-Mujahideen and Harkat-ul-Jihad-al-Islami. It has been involved in infiltration bids, narcotics and weapons smuggling and terror attacks, besides threatening security forces and running indoctrination campaigns in J& believe the Pakistan army is in a precarious situation, facing threats both internally and externally. Rising attacks by Taliban-backed terrorist groups and the Balochistan Liberation Army threaten to spread the Pakistani forces thin. Consequently, some intelligence officials do not rule out that the Pahalgam attack was orchestrated by the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) to provoke a limited conflict with India and thereby lift the sagging image of the Pakistan army on the home desperation within the Pakistan army leadership can be gauged from a recent statement by its army chief, General Asim Munir. Addressing a gathering of Pakistanis abroad, Gen. Munir called them the country's ambassadors and reminded them of their 'superior ideology and culture'. But his remarks also betrayed ethnic contempt for Indians, especially its Hindu majority. 'You should definitely tell Pakistan's story to your children. Our forefathers thought we are different from the Hindus in every aspect of life. Our religions, our customs, traditions, thoughts and ambitions are different. That was the foundation of the two-nation (India-Pakistan) theory,' he to India Today MagazineTune InTrending Reel
Time of India
24-04-2025
- Politics
- Time of India
Morning Brief Podcast: Peace Perished: Explaining the Pahalgam Terror Attack
Morning Brief Podcast (ET Bureau) Peace Perished: Explaining the Pahalgam Terror Attack Nidhi Sharma | 16:41 Min | April 24, 2025, 8:39 AM IST LISTEN 16:41 LISTENING... Once an idyllic, tourist-friendly destination nicknamed 'mini Switzerland,' Baisaran Valley is now the site of a devastating and unprecedented terrorist attack, which has claimed 26 lives yet. As scenes of gunshots and helpless victims reverberate and replay through news channels and the internet, host Nidhi Sharma asks Hakeem Irfan Rashid, ET's Kashmir expert, to explain the whys, hows and what next. He discusses the calculated nature of the attack, the shocking targeting of civilians, and the larger implications for Kashmir's image of normalcy post-Article 370, the absence of security infrastructure in remote regions, and the fear now gripping the valley, especially with the tourist season just setting in. With cancellations pouring in and shutdowns across towns, this attack may cast a long shadow over the region's recovery.
