Precision Punishment

IN THE DEAD OF NIGHT, when silence peaks, a cocktail of lethal Indian precision munitions hovered ominously over Pakistan’s skies. Like a mosquito that’s spotted a rich vein of blood, each of the Scalp and Hammer bombs locked in on their unsuspecting quarry. Within seconds of the strike, images of the resultant destruction were relayed back to Prime Minister Narendra Modi who was awaiting word in a command centre.

Modi was hoping to inflict “unimaginable punishment” upon the Pakistan-sponsored plotters of Pahalgam. And Operation Sindoor did not disappoint him. Perhaps the military action was divined to succeed. For sindoor is the vermilion red powder that many traditional Indian women wear on their hair parting, only to remove it if they become widowed. And since in Pahalgam, several women were widowed, Operation Sindoor’s name was powerfully prescient.

In a span of 30 minutes, nine terror havens, some in Pakistan’s beating heart of Punjab, were reduced to rubble. Nine hours later, two women officers of the Indian armed forces briefed the world. They took turns laying out how Operation Sindoor targeted major terror strongholds linked to groups such as Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM), Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), and Hizbul Mujahideen. Key sites included Bahawalpur (JeM HQ), Muridke (LeT HQ), Muzaffarabad, Kotli, Sialkot, Gulpur, Bhimber, Bagh, and Chak Amru. Each was chosen for a reason. There are too many to list here. But what can be said is that this was the first time since 1971 that India had struck this deep in Pakistan.

In the annals of modern military history, India’s Operation Sindoor arguably marks a watershed moment. Its audacity rewrites the rules of retaliation between nuclear-armed states. In a nuclear dyad like India and Pakistan, conventional wisdom has long held that direct military responses to provocations risk uncontrollable escalation. Convinced of this Cold War-era dictum, many Indian regimes of the past would simply turn the other cheek after being mauled by Pakistan-based terror proxies. Not so Narendra Modi. He has become adept at turning terror launch pads into tombstones.

The post-Uri LoC surgical strikes in PoK, first undertaken by the Modi government in 2016, might have been a shallow kinetic retaliation, but they showed that conventional options do exist even in a nuclearised environment. Or, put simply, it was possible to call Pakistan’s nuclear bluff.

Modi has never looked back since 2016. In 2019, his government climbed a notch higher on the escalation ladder by executing the Balakot airstrike upon Pakistan’s soil. The daredevilry displayed by India’s ace fighter pilots won Modi widespread goodwill. Some say even a second term in office.

But now, nine years on what distinguishes Sindoor from past retaliatory action is how it blends kinetic strikes with cyber disruption, drone surveillance, and psychological warfare. The latter is an important addendum as India has struck the holy of holies—Muridke, the citadel of Pakistani military’s prized asymmetric weapon, the Islamist terror organisation LeT. Moreover, Muridke is but 30km from the iconic city of Lahore, the stomping ground of Pakistan’s elite. This city’s denizens have not been nipped by cross-border insecurity in two generations. Now, the people who rule Pakistan know they are not safe in their plush patrician mansions.

Sindoor shows retaliation need not always be static; that it can be agile, pre-emptive, assertive, yet contained—which is also where deterrence gets rewritten.

Perhaps that’s why the international community has taken a more understanding view of India’s action. There appears to be a tacit acknowledgement of India’s right to self-defence. The lack of international condemnation will also create room for reflection and perhaps realisation: that the days nuclear status can be exploited as a shield for waging asymmetric warfare are over.

India’s Operation Sindoor has therefore added a new chapter to strategic literature: one where the balance of terror is no longer held hostage by the fear of escalation but recalibrated through confident, intelligent force projection.

Don’t be surprised if other nuclear dyads— from North and South Korea to Israel and Iran—borrow a leaf from India’s playbook.

2025 India-Pakistan warIndia-PakistanOperation SindoorPahalgamterror attack