THE Pahalgam terror strike targetting tourists should be treated as the last straw on the camel’s back. The Government should now live by its own promise that the perpetrators of the crime would be made to pay for their sin. But this must happen immediately -- possibly in the next couple of days in the most merciless manner. If the Government fails to comply with this, then it will prove itself as incompetent. In the past few days, Kashmir is witnessing increased terrorist activity -- keeping the Security Forces continually engaged in counter-terrorism operations. In the process, the country has lost a few brave-hearts who laid their lives down for the honour of the motherland.

 

To keep their pledge intact and honour upheld, the Government must now act with utmost urgency it can command in the given situation. For, now is the time to act decisively and with a clear and stated intent of meting out to terror mechanism a punishment that its masterminds would never forget. Prime Minister Mr. Narendra Modi has done well to cut short his two-day visit to Saudi Arabia. Union Home Minister Mr. Amit Shah, too, has moved to Kashmir to oversee the counter-operations personally and take last-minute quick decisions in favour of elimination of terror in every possible nook and corner not just in Kashmir but also elsewhere -- so that the terror outfits learn a lesson of their lifetime. This is one situation that should be treated as a provocation to wage a war against India’s enemies.

 

The modus operandi adopted by the terror outfit is most damning. Its terrorists have chosen to target unsuspecting tourists who were enjoying the Kashmir summer. There were approximately 5,000 men, women and children in the tourist spot at the time of attack. Everything was going on with the happy spirit of vacation and mental and physical rejuvenation. Then suddenly, terrorists appeared on the scene, asking the tourists their identities -- only to ascertain who they should target. Having done that, they then opened fire on unsuspecting, innocent tourists 26 among whom lay dead and several others seriously injured. In other words, the terrorists zeroed in on chosen human targets. There can be nothing more dastardly than this. Hence now the need for the Government to take a firm, no-nonsense decision and hit back the hardest at the terrorists holed up as different people.

 

There is every reason for the common people -- of India and the world -- to believe that the Government (of India) means business at least this time and would teach the terror masterminds and their political masters across the International Border (IB) and the Line of Control (LoC) a lesson they would never forget, or never want to keep in memory. In fact, the Indian Security Forces should have crossed the LoC or the International Border by the midnight of April 22 and scalps of dozens of Pakistani operatives and terror. In the past, they have acted tough and avenged their drubbing at the hands of the Pakistanis on a few occasions -- the most prominent among those strike-backs being the counter-attack on Pulwama, and the second being the airstrikes at Balakot in Pakistan. Those two strikes unnerved Pakistan to no end. Now also, similar concrete measures are called for in the current situation as well. The world has now realised afresh how Pakistan shields the terrorists. That is the reason why a majority of countries around the globe have supported India and have expressed a sentiment that suggests an immediate and hard hit-back by Indian Security Forces. This should have been done at the midnight of April 22-23, 2025. Such an attack would have earned a global appreciation for India’s guts and power.