Our response will be fierce and punitive, says India

After a night of fierce pounding of its major airfields by the Indian Air Force (IAF), Pakistan sued for peace Saturday. “On 10^th of May in the morning I received a message from my counterpart to communicate. It was decided that I would indeed speak with my counterpart. My communication with Pakistan’s Director General of Military Operations (DGMO) was conducted at 1535 hours and we agreed to cessation of hostilities,” Lt Gen Rajiv Ghai, DGMO of the Indian army told reporters on Sunday.

Ghai noted that Pakistan had “disappointingly and expectedly” violated the agreement just hours after he had spoken to his counterpart. He said a message has been sent to his counterparty “highlighting the violations of what we had agreed.” The DGMO said the Indian army chief “has earlier today conducted a full review and given full authority to respond in case of any violation in a manner we deem fit.”

“The response will be punitive and fierce,” Ghai added.

The Indian DGMO said that, “We tried to speak to my Pakistani counterpart and convey to him our compulsion to target terrorists. But our request was turned down brusquely.” This was the first hint that Pakistan did not understand the motivation and nature of India’s original strike. This was its original miscalculation which ultimately, through a series of events, led it to ask India for peace.

Outlining the sequence of events that unfolded after the Pahalgam attack, the three senior military officers, Air Marshal A K Bharti, the Director General of Air Operations (DGAO) and Vice Admiral A Pramod, the Director General of Naval Operations (DGNO), said that India’s forces carefully selected the targets or originally had planned only to hit the terrorist camps and sites. They were, however, compelled to respond in a fitting manner after Pakistan launched a wave of drone and other airborne assets.

“On the night of 8^th and 9^th starting early, a mass raid by Pakistan took place from Srinagar (J&K) to Naliya (Gujarat). Our air defence preparedness ensured there was no damage,” DGAO Bharti said.

Pakistan did not stop there and after that it began targeting Indian military and civilian infrastructure and assets.

Bharti said that, “It was time to convey some message to our adversaries. A decision was taken to strike where it would hurt. In a swift, coordinated and calibrated attack we stuck its air bases at Chaklala (near Rawalpindi) and other locations sending a clear message that aggression will not be tolerated.”

This was followed by hits on Sargodha and Rahim Yar Khan, two key bases of their air force. “We have the capability to target every system at all the enemy’s bases. But we were selective in targeting to send a message to the enemy that good sense would prevail,” Bharti added.

The Indian counter-strike after Pakistan attacked military targets in India was extensive. Evidence gathered by the Indian armed forces clearly shows that. The radar systems at Pasrur, at Chunian, Sukkur and Arifwala, the airfields at Sargodha, Rahim Yar Khan, Chaklala, Sukkur and Bholari were all hit as were aircraft hangers at Jacobabad air base.

In the midst of all this action by Indian forces that was primarily in the North, the Indian Navy, too, went into an overdrive.

“The Indian navy was immediately deployed in coordination with other forces,” Vice Admiral Pramod said. “Pakistanis remained in harbours or close to them,” he added, reminiscent of the 1971 war when the Indian Navy boxed in the Pakistan Navy. “Our response has been calibrated. There was an escalation control plan and Navy was deployed in close coordination with other forces. The Indian navy remains forward deployed,” he added.

Our fight was not with the Pakistan army or anyone but with the terrorists. We were pounded night after night with UCAVs and drones. This left us with no choice. But our response was calibrated, the officers said.

The lesson of Pakistan’s misadventure is clear and follows a previously observed pattern. Pakistan first takes reckless military steps and when the Indian war machine rumbles into action, Islamabad then runs to other great powers for help with India. This time was no different. Pakistan’s diplomatic please are a different matter but in the end its powerful army was forced to back down because of its own incompetence. The massive Indian response by 10^th May unnerved its otherwise voluble brass. When the Pakistani DGMO picked up the hotline on mid-day Saturday, it had already acquiesced to Indian firepower.

The message from India’s military brass to Pakistan on Sunday was: be ready for a walloping in case you try another misadventure.

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