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Since 22 April 2025 India and Pakistan had reached brink of war. On this date Pakistan Army’s proxy (Lashkar-e-Taiba) offshoot The Resistance Front launched a terrorist attack in Pahalagam killing 26 tourists in Indian State of Jammu and Kashmir. For India this was amounting to the 26/11 terrorist attacks (Mumbai, November 2008), where though the numbers of civilians killed was much more (166), still since 22 April the kind of impact it had on the Indian psyche of grief was parallel to that of 26/11. After the 1971 war (India split Pakistan in two and created Bangladesh), the Pakistan Army after this third war with India, realized it was not a conventional war match for India in anyway that is neither a short nor long war. So, the Pakistan Army made a strategic decision to create, fund, train terrorist groups who would be sent across the border to India. Normally a country has Army but in case of Pakistan, the Army has a country. Since 1980s Pakistan State Sponsored Radical Islamic terrorism has been bleeding India first during the Khalistan problem in Punjab and then in Jammu and Kashmir since 1989. The lack of adherence to International Law is from the Pakistani side, which repeatedly creates a crisis with its State sponsored terrorist attacks. There are United Nations designated global terrorist sitting in Pakistan which includes Lashkar-e-Taiba Chief Hafiz Saeed, Jaish-e-Mohammad Chief Masood Azhar etc and they have been sanctioned under International Law and UN Charter. Still, they are treated like VIPs and in safe custody of the Pakistan Army. Terrorist groups that these two terrorists own and head are technically banned in Pakistan but their Army allows them to operate with impunity under some or other form. Pakistan has been freezing the bank account of these terrorist groups, but in a scattered way there are individuals who still have a bank account linked to the Jaish-e-Mohammad and Lashkar-e-Taiba. So, Pakistan continues with its terrorist actions. Due to the Pahalagam terror attack on 22 April, India had vowed that it would respond militarily as its right of self-defence. So, on 7 May 2025 India hit many sites in Pakistan and Pakistan Occupied Kashmir with missiles. The Indian official readout highlighted that the nine sites hit were all terrorist infrastructure, at the same time it indirectly alluded to Article 51 of UN Charter (starting part of the official readout) that is the right of self-defence, but more importantly the readout said that the Indian strikes were measured, calibrated, non-escalatory and at the same time it stated that the Pakistani military installations were not hit at all. Pakistan was so rattled that as usual when any terrorist is killed, the Pakistan Army will always give a burial and call them martyr. Like in May 2011, US Special Forces killed Osama Bin Laden (inside Pakistan), Pakistanis referred to him as a martyr, including the recently ousted Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan (ousted in 2022) who called him martyr too in 2020. Pakistan on the night of 7th and 8th, 8th and 9th May 2025 launched a series of drones, rockets and missiles over civilian areas, military installations right from the state of Jammu and Kashmir to Gujarat on entire western border of India. India used its superb air defence shield, so no damage has happened touchwood to civilian life; same happened on the intervening night of 9th and 10th May. On 9th and 10th May Pakistan targeted with a high-speed missile several Indian air bases in Punjab too among other military installations inside India. These attacks too were successfully thwarted by the Indian air defence. India hit back at several Pakistan air bases across the border with Indian warplanes firing missiles, and during Indian press briefing they confirmed which all places had been successfully hit in Pakistan. Before this India on 8th May 2025 hit the air defence system of Pakistan, it was stationed in Lahore. Even on 9th May 2025 India gave a befitting military response to the Pakistan Army as it was firing on civilian areas etc in India. Whatever India has achieved till now is commendable. As whatever India did right from the outset of targeting terrorist infrastructure on 7 May 2025 to hitting Pakistani air bases on 10 May 2025 it has inflicted massive military cost for the Pakistanis, which will be a deterrent against future planning of the Pakistani Army, as they will have to think hard whether or not they should still continue to use terrorism as an instrument of war to bleed India. Pakistan’s military was weakened. So, DGMO (Pakistani General) rang up his Indian counterpart to attain a ceasefire (Trump should not take credit, as the Indian Foreign Minister did not thank him in the Tweet!).
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