Modi Keeps His Promise to the Nation

BAHAWALPUR, MURIDKE AND SIALKOT ARE NOT MERE namesof cities. Thesehavelongbeenthehubofterror-breedingseminariesin Pakistan’s Punjab, backed and actively promoted by the Rawalpindi military establishment. In their grim shadows, terror is not merely an ideology but an industry that has served as fertile ground for radicalisation, training and the logistical preparation of jihad. These seminaries, infamous in intelligence circles and well-documented in India’s sealed dossiers, had long been the operational nerve centres of groups like Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM), Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) and Hizbul Mujahideen.

Nurtured by the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), these places are ground zero for Islamabad’s “bleed India by a thousand cuts” doctrine. In the past 25 years, cross-border terror incidents involving Pakistan have claimed the lives of over 350 Indians and injured more than 800. The toll on India’s security forces has also been devastating, with over 600 person­nel killed and more than 1,400 injured while defending against these attacks. International security agencies always knew the truth, yet the world hesitated.

But why blame the rest of the world alone?

Indian governments in the past, too, through the Mumbai attack of 2008 and several others, held back on all-out action against the hostile neighbour. International pressure, Pakistan’s successful lobbying at global forums, and the hesitation of governments in New Delhi to impose heavy costs on Islamabad ensured a long-term deterrent.

All that meant the so-called strategic patience dulled the prospects of any meaningful retaliation.

But that calculus changed in the early hours of May 7, 2025.

That was when Prime Minister Narendra Modi gave his nod to a tri-services retaliation inside Pakistan. Armed with his carte blanche to the chiefs of the three security forces, it was a well-planned, well-coordinated and well-considered strike on nine key terror training establishments, including in the very heart of Pakistan’s Punjab. It took just 25 minutes for India to unleash 24 missiles that pulverised these nine terror camps, aided by drones and without even crossing the International Border (IB) or the Line of Control (LoC).

This was no symbolic gesture. Nine key terror training facilities deep within Pakistani Punjab, including the infamous Muridke and Bahawalpur seminaries, were reduced to rubble. Not a single Indian soldier crossed the LoC or the IB. Instead, precision-guided missiles, aided by kamikaze drones, obliterated the designated tar­gets from afar. The attack was surgical, decisive and brutal, sending a chilling message to Pakistan: This is the cost of sheltering those who maim innocents.

The two prime targets—Muridke and Bahawalpur—had long been symbols of impunity. Anchored in the hardline teach­ings of Ahl-e Hadith and the Deobandi tradition, these institutions had served as sanctuaries for jihadists, shielded by Pakistan’s deep state and financed through opaque channels. For decades, they were considered untouchable. But as the Rafales, Mirages and Sukhois lifted off from Bareilly and other hinterland air bases, loaded with long-range missiles and smart bombs, their destruc­tion became inevitable.

From now on, fear will be a huge cost on those espousing these schools of thought. Operation Sindoor sent out a message to Islamabad that the costs imposed by New India will henceforth be heavy and unrelenting, even without engaging in conventional warfare, if it did not desist from training soldiers of Islam to kill innocent civilians.

Following the Uri terror attack in 2016 and the attack in Pulwama in 2019, after both of which India launched precision airstrikes against terror targets inside Pakistan, this is the third time that Modi and his government, unlike governments of the past, dared to call Pakistan’s nuclear bluff. The attack, which killed over 100 terrorists, was tellingly named Operation Sindoor, in block letters, with the first ‘O’ represented by a bowl of vermil­lion (which married Hindu women wear on their foreheads) in memory of the 26 tourists, all men, killed in Pahalgam on April 22. The brutality of the attack and the grief of the bereaved were captured most poignantly by the images of the shocked and widowed wives in the middle of a scenic meadow, referred to often as “mini-Switzerland”.

The act of naming was, therefore, both memorial and manifesto.

The five perpetrators vanished into the woods as silently as they had appeared, leaving behind a river of grief and blood. The killings were executions that happened after the Kalma (Islamic prayer verses from the Quran) test meant to identify the religion of the victim.

Modi, in a speech two days after the Pahalgam attack, had vowed from Bihar’s Madhubani that retribution would be swift and absolute. “We will trace, track and punish the Islamic jihadists and their enablers who took husbands from wives and fathers from daughters. We will go to the ends of the Earth to punish them,” he had thundered.

And he did walk the talk.

The resounding success of Operation Sindoor not only silenced critics but also altered the political narrative. Opposition lead­ers who had earlier mocked the government’s response were forced to publicly acknowledge the operation’s effectiveness. At a rare all-party meeting convened on May 8, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh made it clear: Operation Sindoor was not a one-off strike but an ongoing campaign. Modi urged unity, calling on every Indian to stand behind the nation in this defining moment.

But the moves made by the Modi government to impose unbearable costs on Pakistan after the Pahalgam carnage were not restricted to Operation Sindoor. In the immediate aftermath, the government had expelled diplomats, cut down the staff, suspended visas to Pakistani nationals and given them a deadline to return, ceased all imports from and exports to Pakistan, stopped their ships from docking at Indian ports, banned Pakistani aircraft from flying over Indian airspace, and so on.

Most importantly, the Modi government did not shy away from collective costs on the Pakistani people. It decided to keep the Indus Waters Treaty (IWT) of 1960 in abeyance and stop the flow of water to Pakistan by renewing the dam building on the river which sup­plies water for 80 per cent of Pakistan’s agriculture and food as well as drinking water to key cities. There are reports that the Chenab’s flow has already declined to a good extent, ahead of the kharif sow­ing season. Attempts are also being made to lobby diplomatically with key international allies such as the US to list The Resistance Front (TRF, which claimed credit for the Pahalgam attack) as a global terrorist organisation. Another key move likely is to lobby with in­ternational agencies to grey-list Pakistan under the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) and impose severe conditionalities in place of aid. The steps would effectively cripple Pakistan’s economy.

The success of isolating Pakistan on the global stage did not happen overnight but has been a sustained effort, ensuring that Islamabad did not get a quarter even at the emergency UN Security Council (UNSC) meeting. Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri person­ally briefed ambassadors of 13 nations, while permanent members of the UNSC were provided detailed dossiers on Operation Sindoor. Even Pakistan’s traditional allies displayed restraint. China, for its part, issued a generic call for peace. The US reaffirmed India’s right to self-defence. No country condemned India.

The cumulative effect of Indian efforts would be devastating for an already fragile Pakistani economy.

The true resonance of Operation Sindoor lies with the Indian public. The nation, reeling from decades of passive defence, witnessed a tectonic shift. Modi, with his resolve and refusal to bend to nuclear blackmail, has rewritten the rules of engage­ment. For the first time in recent memory, the myth of Pakistan’s untouchability has been shattered.

Operation Sindoor cements a new doctrine: deterrence through disproportionate response.

The world has changed. So has India. The ghosts of Pahalgam may never rest. But they have been avenged. And those who plotted, enabled and celebrated their deaths now know the price of Indian resolve.

Although the other actions were taken earlier or were ongoing, it is the success of Operation Sindoor,which even targeted Rawal­pindi, the seat of the Pakistani army HQ, apart from other critical military bases for attack, that has resonated most among the ordi­nary public and added to Modi’s stature. With his decisive moves against the terror incubator in the neighbourhood, Modi has not just avenged the victims of Pahalgam but also taken revenge for 25 years of Islamabad’s jihadist atrocities against India.

Sindoor is no longer just a symbol of tradition. It is a warning. A signature of wrath. A crimson line that dares Pakistan to cross it again.

2025 India-Pakistan warNarendra ModiOperation SindoorPahalgamterror attack