Elizabeth Roche
After four days of escalating military exchanges involving drones, loitering munitions, missiles, artillery, and fighter aircraft that set off international alarm bells, India and Pakistan agreed to a ceasefire on May 10. Though tenuous, it seemed to be holding a day later.
The cessation of hostilities has shifted the focus to what India achieved with its military strikes, codenamed Operation Sindoor, which began on May 7 when India struck nine terrorist training camps and launch pads inside Pakistan and Pakistan-administered Kashmir, in retaliation for the terrorist attacks in Pahalgam in India’s Jammu and Kashmir that left 26 people dead.
Unnamed sources quoted by several news organizations on Sunday said that India’s goal was to ensure that Pakistan and the terrorist groups it nurtured received the message that “no place is safe” for them if they target India or Indian interests. The Indian military would target any part of Pakistani territory, hitting “targets that are identified with their security establishment.” That message, they said, had been sent successfully to Pakistan and the international community.
According to these sources, India has set a “new normal” in its response to terrorism by raising costs for the perpetrators and their supporters.
In retaliation for India’s military strikes, Pakistan focused its attacks on Indian military bases. But this only triggered stronger responses from India, the reports quoting unnamed sources said.
“The actions taken by India are aimed at creating and setting a new normal in the relationship. It is not business as usual. Pakistan and the world will have to get used to this new normal because India has had enough,” a report in the Hindustan Times said, quoting an anonymous source.
Despite the ceasefire, there is no let-up on the measures India announced in the immediate aftermath of the Pahalgam attack, which included suspending the 1960 Indus Waters Treaty.
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