OPERATION Sindoor has brought a “paradigm shift” in warfighting, and the military action has validated India’s capability for multi-domain precision warfare, Colonnel Sofiya Qureshi said on Friday. In her address at ‘Chanakya Defence Dialogue: Young Leaders Forum at Manekshaw Centre’ here, she also spoke of the “information warfare” that was also waged by the Pakistani side during the operation, and urged the youth to be agile, alert in warding off misinformation, and pitched for greater digital literacy among the youth, including in academic institutions to counter it. Col Qureshi was one of the prominent faces in media briefings on ‘Op Sindoor’. India launched Operation Sindoor early on May 7 and decimated multiple terror infrastructure in Pakistan and Pakistan-Occupied-Kashmir (PoK), in response to the Pahalgam attack on April 22.

 

“Op Sindoor has brought a paradigm shift in warfighting, which has proven that peace, stability and progress cannot be sustained without the participation of the young minds and civilians,” Col Qureshi said. “It has validated India’s capability for multi-domain precision warfare, we call it fifth generation,” she said. It was an “extraordinary demonstration” of tri-service synergy, jointness, integration, aatmanirbharta. “Somebody call it as JAI, J-A-I (jointness, self-reliance, and innovation vision), with a whole-of-nation approach, a new normal where the youth from industry, academia and armed forces operate as one integrated security ecosystem,” she said. Under the leadership of the Chief of the Army Staff, the Indian Army is nurturing young officers in niche technology like AI, cyber, with multiple projects in liaison with IITs, DRDO, and various agencies, the army officer said. During her address, she quoted some sholkas to emphasise the importance of both ‘shaastra’ (knowledge) and ‘shastra’ (warfare) in the development of a nation.