Justice, they say, is best served cold. Fifteen days after the horrific terrorist attack in Pahalgam in which 26 innocent people were killed, the Indian military struck a series of earmarked terror launchpads in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir in the early hours of Wednesday, demonstrating both reach and precision that should make India’s enemies quake. The scale of the strikes — called Operation Sindoor — is unprecedented outside the four wars that India and Pakistan have waged. In 2019, Indian jets had struck Balakot in Pakistan’s Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province after a suicide bomber had killed more than 40 Indian paramilitary troops in Kashmir. This time, India struck nine locations across at least six cities in Pakistan and PoK — including four in Punjab, the heartland of Pakistan’s economy and home to 60% of that country’s population. The targets included Muridke, the headquarters of the Lashkar-e-Taiba, and Bahawalpur, the principal base of the Jaish-e-Mohammed — both in Pakistan’s Punjab, a state that India has not hit since the 1971 war. Indian missiles also hit terrorist bases in Kotli and Muzaffarabad in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir.
What makes these strikes an even more significant accomplishment is the fact that they were carried out from Indian airspace — a fact that even Pakistan concedes. Indian security forces did not enter Pakistani territory, avoiding the risk of any Indian soldier being captured, as had happened in 2019 during an aerial dogfight in the aftermath of the Balakot strikes. India’s latest strikes also carefully made sure that no Pakistani military base was attacked, thus denying Islamabad any justification for a military escalation. As a result, India has scored not just militarily but also diplomatically, combining its quest for justice with a response that was calculated, measured and not disproportionate. Adding to that military success was the rare political backdrop to it: political unity in favour of action against Pakistan spanning parties across the spectrum. That strengthened the hands of the Narendra Modi government, which deserves credit for steering India’s response to Pahalgam. Now, as Pakistan threatens to retaliate, the very strengths that have carried India since the April 22 terror attack on tourists, are more vital than ever. India must stay united, politically and as a society, and the government must continue to lead from the front. The success of the Indian armed forces in Wednesday’s operation should give the nation confidence to withstand any misadventure from across the western border.