PM promises to punish Pahalgam guilty, keeps Pak off balance

Prime Minister Narendra Modi used the media interaction with visiting Angolan President Joao Lourenco to reiterate the message that India is committed to take “firm and decisive” action against terrorism and those who support it, bolstering his earlier direction to the armed forces to choose the mode, targets and timing of retaliation.

Choosing his words in English as he has done before while speaking of Pahalgam, Modi seems keen to ensure there is no doubt about India’s determination to punish the perpetrators of the terrorist attack where non-Muslims were singled out. The Prime Minister has said he has full faith in the capabilities of the armed forces in responding to the targeted killing of 26 tourists.

The Prime Minister’s reference comes even as India has stepped up its military drills and remains undeterred by Pakistani sabre rattling by way of missile tests. Such actions on part of Pakistan, intended to raise the specter of nuclear weapons, are not new. In the midst of the Kargil war in 1999, Pakistan had similarly fired missiles understood to be capable of nuclear war heads.

The continuing suspense over the Indian action has flipped the usual dynamic where Pakistan has the advantage of choosing the timing and number of terrorists to infiltrate into Jammu and Kashmir and hit specific targets. In guarding the line of control and the international border, Indian forces are forced to play a primarily “reactive” role that prevents them from being the ones to set the time and place of confronting intruders.

This time around, Pakistan has had to move its fighters out of range of Brahmos missiles while pushing troops along the LoC in a bid to thwart any Indian ingress. By and large, the public opinion in Pakistan remains strongly anti-India but just a few voices are questioning the wisdom of the Pakistan military in creating a crisis situation at a time when the country is dealing with a series of internal crisis and has had to seek assistance from the International Monetary Fund to the tune of $ 7 billion over three years.

A sortie of Indian Air Force Rafale fighters near the LoC saw the Pakistan air defence scrambling in response, unable to fathom whether a strike was in the offing or this was a decoy move to test responses and indulge in some shadow boxing.

The possibility of a range of Indian moves has kept the Pakistan military on tenterhooks while the civilian leadership talks tough but is not fully aware of what the deep state is up to. Unlike India, the Pakistan army does not report to Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and there are no meetings such as the ones conducted by Modi with armed forces chiefs in attendance.

 

 

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