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Balakot strike resets the rules of engagement with Pakistan
- India recalibrates its Pakistan strategy to one of calculated payback and elimination of specific targets
- India is spelling out a new standard of engagement with Pakistan
The rules of engagement with Pakistan underwent a rude reset on Tuesday after the Indian Air Force (IAF) struck a Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) training centre located in that country, killing up to 300 terrorists, especially since Prime Minister Narendra Modi had begun his tenure in 2014 on a conciliatory note inviting then Pakistan PM Nawaz Sharif to be part of the swearing-in ceremony.
With Pakistan-sponsored cross-border terror growing unabated and getting bolder, Indian special forces responded to the 2016 attack on the Uri brigade headquarters with surgical strikes at terror camps based just beyond the Line of Control (LoC). In the latest strike, India has escalated its response with air power inside Pakistan.
This strike has delivered a strong message about India’s ability to retaliate inside Pakistan— and not just along the border. In the process, it has also raised the cost for Pakistan’s tactic of sponsoring attacks carried out by non-state actors like the JeM. This comes at a time when Pakistan finds itself isolated globally, with the exception of China, on the issue of promoting and abetting terrorism.
In short, India is spelling out a new standard of engagement with Pakistan: cross-border terrorism is no longer an option.
The ministry of external affairs said as much when foreign secretary Vijay Gokhale reiterated Tuesday that India had “been repeatedly urging Pakistan to take action but they have taken no concrete action to dismantle terror on its soil”.
A series of attacks by the JeM, including the Pathankot air force station and Uri in 2016, and 4,894 cases of ceasefire violations by the Pakistan Army from 2014 to 2018, subsequently forced India to recalibrate its strategy to one of calculated payback and elimination of specific targets that are likely to cause large-scale harm to the Indian subcontinent.
The attack on the Pathankot airbase attack in January 2016 and the one in Uri in September that year, resulted in India ending the dialogue process with Pakistan.
“With Pakistan, one has always had to play it very carefully. Their political establishment has zero control. It is their army which does the talking—whether it is regarding terrorist outfits or political moves. So we have to match them step for step as time and circumstances demand,” said a former senior central government official, who did not wish to be identified.
Three days after Pakistan-sponsored JeM killed 40 Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) soldiers in a suicide attack in Pulwama, on 17 February the IAF began showing its firepower in Pokhran, Rajasthan, across the border from Bahawalpur—the headquarters of the Jaish in Pakistan, and said to be the place where JeM chief Maulana Masood Azhar is in a safe house.
With its demonstration on dummy targets, the IAF sent out a strong message that the force was prepped for any kind of retaliation under any weather condition.
On early Tuesday morning, deviating from the tactic used in September 2016 during the surgical strike, where teams of the Indian Army conducted ground assault on terror launch pads along the LoC, the IAF flew into Pakistan and destroyed the training centre of the Jaish in Balakot.
“This was a symbolic action. After the surgical strikes, this time we are prepared to go up the escalation ladder. This means a possible war-like situation, capturing posts, etc. But the situation won’t be taken very easily and lightly by Pakistan. They will be adequately prepared. And we must also be prepared for an eventuality wherein if they retaliate, then what needs to be done,” said Lt. Gen (retd). H.S Panag, a defence expert.
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First Published:27 Feb 2019, 07:00 AM IST
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