TIME has come to make the fullest use of the steps India has taken against Pakistan in the wake of the dastardly Pahalgam terror strike on unsuspecting tourists who were singled out by asking them their religious identity. With these measures, Pakistan can certainly be made to realise its severe limitations on multiple fronts. Very soon, Pakistan will realise that its sense of collective security -- water, food etc -- is being challenged when it starts facing starvation in critical domains. When the outcome of the Indian actions starts showing in practical life, the average Pakistani people will realise how their regime has pushed them into corners of serious compromise.

 

The Pakistanis will also start realising the ill-effects of other Indian actions on the diplomatic front -- of downgrading of ties. Looking back on how Pakistan has conducted itself, it is easy to insist that India should have taken such actions much earlier. The overall situation also calls for some other embargoes on Pakistan -- of course, by India. And the best embargo should be a total cut-off of ties -- the people or cultural or trade connects. From Indian side, conscious effort need to be made to ensure that India keeps Pakistan off in terms of sports connect, films, literature, commerce of all kinds. With such a comprehensive embargo is in place, Pakistan will starve not just physically but also emotionally and culturally. Currently, some elements in Pakistani are brazen about Indian sanctions. They feel that the Indian sanctions could be fought off easily. This is their misconception about themselves.When a strong and globally-accepted neighbour like India slaps various embargoes, Pakistan will start smarting under that regime like never before. That should be the actual purpose of all Indian actions -- starving Pakistan, in the long-run hope that such steps would teach Pakistan right lessons. To some, this may appear to be a very harsh response. However, given what Pakistan has done to India over decades, only such extreme steps can be of some actual use.

 

When the terrorists struck at Pahalgam resort, there were at least 4,000 tourists in the area. Emerging accounts of those terrible moments show that the terrorists asked each tourist his or her religion before executing them. When a woman asked to be killed after her husband was eliminated, one terrorist reportedly asked her to tell Prime Minister Mr. Narendra Modi how things were. Thus, in other words, the Pakistani attackers wished to deliver to Prime Minister Mr. Narendra Modi a message that they succeeded despite him being at the helm of Indian affairs. In other words, the terrorists were directly challenging Indian power and Indian leadership -- on a personal basis. such an affront cannot and must not be tolerated. In response to this latest act of terror, India must keep punishing Pakistan in every possible way for years and years to come. In fact, Pakistan does not deserve to live as an independent country since it has allowed its freedom to be abused by terrorists.

 

Thanks to that policy, Pakistan is now known the world over as an agency of terrorism -- an epithet the world has bestowed upon Islamabad. Terrible terror attacks have taken place on Indian targets previously as well. In many such acts, the terrorists are known to have indulged in selective killings -- on the basis of religion and nationality. In most strikes, the people who suffered were ordinary people from India or elsewhere. When a State believes in terror as a tool of its official policy, then it loses its right to exist in the comity of nations. Pakistan, of course, has denied its involvement in the Pahalgam strike. Such denials have no sense and, therefore, need not be taken too seriously. Much to the contrary, Pakistan deserves a sterner action so that it loses whatever sustenance it has built over time in its systems.