The real heroes of Operation Sindoor were not the armed forces or political leadership, but the ordinary citizens of India who refused to fall into the trap of communal provocation, asserts Colonel Anil A Athale (retd).
The Pahalgam attack was Pakistan's desperate attempt to whip up communal riots in India. It was a repeat of the Godhra train burning incident of February 2002, which led to communal riots in Gujarat when India and Pakistan were in an eyeball to eyeball confrontation on the border during Operation Parkaram.
The riots led to the diversion of nearly a division (10,000 soldiers) to Ahmedabad and saved Pakistan.
The deliberate targeting of Hindus in Pahalgam followed Asif Munir's rant on the two nation theory.
The common Indian understood the Pakistani game and there were no repercussions against Muslims in the rest of the country.
There was no exodus of Kashmiri students from other parts of the country. Indians showed a sense of unity and understood the Pakistani game.
The Pahalgam attack was possibly Pakistan's Plan B. Plan A, possibly, was to blow up/damage the Srinagar rail link.
After the completion of this rail link, Pakistan has become increasingly despondent as it sees its dream of capturing Kashmir fade away.
The second objective of the Pahalgam attack was to derail normalcy in Kashmir, stop the flow of tourists and cause economic hardship to the people of the Valley.
India reacted to this outrage decisively on May 7 and targeted terrorist hubs in Pakistan.
As the situation escalated, India also launched successful attacks on Pakistani airfields on May 10.
These precision attacks as part of a counter force offensive sends a powerful signal.
It showed India's will and ability to pre-empt Pakistani air power as well as missile launch sites.
After the pause in Operation Sindoor, India through its prime minister propounded a new doctrine vis a vis Pakistan.
The new normal has for the first time recognised our folly of treating terrorists and the Pakistani State as separate entities.
In the past some in India even regarded the ISI (Inter Services Intelligence) as different from the Pakistan army when it is well known that the ISI is a department of the Pakistan army. But such was the hubris or self-delusion in India.
Right from 1947 onwards every prime minister, beginning with Jawaharlal Nehru to Narendra Modi, has attempted to make peace with Pakistan.
In December 2015, Modi made a surprise visit to Lahore and later permitted the ISI to investigate the Pathankot air base terror attack.
Every single prime minister failed in the peace attempt. We have never understood that Kashmir was never the objective, it was a means to an end, Gazwa E Hind or the conquest of India.
Colonel Anil A Athale (retd) is a military historian and author of Let the Jhelum Smile Again (1997) and Nuclear Menace The Satyagraha Approach (1998).
His earlier columns can be read here.
Feature Presentation: Rajesh Alva/Rediff
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