Indian Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri was very categorical in stating that the original escalation was the April 22nd terror attack on tourists in Pahalgam in the most barbaric manner.
“ Operation Sindoor,” was launched on Wednesday-May 7, 2025- in retaliation to the Pahalgam massacre of 25 tourists and a Kashmiri Muslim pony operator . This was to bring the perpetrators, backers and planners of the barbaric attack to justice , for which the entire world had given full support .
This leads to an obvious question that why didn’t India launch any terror operation after its aerial strikes on February 26 in Balakot in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province of Pakistan to destroy Jaish-e-Mohammad’s terror training center in jungles surrounded by mountains, in response to the February 14, 2019 ,Pulwama terror attack that left 40 CRPF personnel dead Until Pahalgam happened , India had not launched any surgical or aerial strike ,directed at Pakistan , despite it having the knowledge that Pakistan was sheltering terrorists and training them in its mainland and in the illegally occupied territories of Pakistan occupied Jammu and Kashmir , in more than six years since Pulwama.
Pahalgam terror attack was multi-dimensional and hit India and its citizens I n more than one ways . In particular, it was aimed at snapping the bonds developing between Kashmir Valley and the rest of the country. It attempted to stigmatize Kashmir, presenting it as a land where Hindu tourists were on the target , and Kashmiri Muslims were to be blamed for it.
Pakistani planners of this horrendous attack knew that the barbaric act of this enormity and brutal nature would scare the tourists , and they will not come to the Valley for holidaying or related pleasure trips with their families . It attempted to create a fresh gap between the people of Kashmir and the rest of the nation . But Kashmiris were able to see through Pakistani designs and demanded that action be taken against Pakistan that had despoiled their land, people and their centuries-old ethos of co-existence . There, the game of Pakistan failed .
Today, the tensions have escalated between India and Pakistan , all because of Pahalgam, which Pakistan dismissed as an incident that could be addressed through condolences to the victim’s families. Neither the word condemn was used nor it was acknowledged as a terror attack.
In the first two-days of ongoing Operation Sindoor , Pakistan has tried to further escalate the situation , despite knowing that only the terrorists and their structures were blown up in the strikes . No military establishment was touched . Instead of accepting the fact that terrorists deserved no mercy , it gave hero’s farewell to the terrorists killed in the strikes. They were given state funerals – Pakistan perhaps is the only country where it is a practice to accord state funerals to terrorists . It is self-speaking about the country’s patronage to terrorists and their assets .
A barrage of anti-India propaganda through fake news on social media , and the blatant lies by its top functionaries – Prime Minister, Deputy PM and Defense Minister – show that Pakistan is not understanding the dynamics of its sin in Pahalgam, and all these lies and propaganda will not cover or alter the truth that it committed original sin and act of escalation on April 22nd massacre of tourists .
Until then though the Indo-Pak relations were not normal , but they had not deteriorated to the lowest ebb as these are today.
