Ruthless Resolve

Another slaughter in Kashmir. Another sea of bodies, blood and broken promises. The massacre of more than 25 persons, mostly tourists, in Pahalgam by Islamist terrorists was a reminder, if any were needed, that the Indian state’s restraint is seen by its enemies not as nobility but as weakness ripe for exploitation.

The cold-blooded, religiously fuelled butchery of tourists was particularly chilling this time. Survivors spoke of terrorists demanding Indian victims recite Islamic verses and shooting them in the head at point-blank range when they couldn’t. This was religious extremism in its purest, most barbaric form.

Even the timing carried a strategic message. The massacre coincided with the visit of U.S. Vice President J.D. Vance to India and days after Pakistan Army Chief Asim Munir’s incendiary speech against India and the Hindu community - a calculated strike designed to project instability and remind the world that Kashmir remains a battlefield of jihad.

The terrorism in Kashmir since the 1990s has never been about ‘freedom’ or ‘self-determination.’ It has been, from the first bullet to the latest massacre, an Islamic jihad, bankrolled, armed and directed by Pakistan’s Punjabi Army and executed by its network of jihadi mercenaries.

For how long must India endure this? How many more mutilated bodies will it take before the gloves come off? Be it the ethnic cleansing of Kashmiri Pandits in the Valley, the Mumbai bomb blasts of 1993, the 2001 Parliament attack, the carnage of 26/11 when Pakistani-sponsored gunmen turned Mumbai into a killing field or the 2019 Pulwama terror strike.

Enough. This cannot be allowed to continue. The Indian Army, one of the largest and most professional forces in the world, exists precisely to deal with such existential threats and must strike back hard to not just avenge Pahalgam but put Pakistan in its place once and for all.

For the primary enemy is not the terrorists pulling triggers in the forests of South Kashmir but the generals in Rawalpindi who have built an entire war economy on the back of jihad, using religious fanaticism as state policy.

Billions are spent on India’s defence every year. Aircraft carriers, nuclear submarines, Rafale jets — all fine and necessary. But ultimately, if the nation’s enemies can kill civilians at will while hiding behind a rogue neighbour’s uniform, what good is all this power?

Pakistan’s Punjabi generals understand only one language: force. Their motto is jihad; their strategy is endless bleeding. India must now write its own reply in action, not words.

This is not a call for random violence. It is a call for relentless justice: the methodical elimination of Pakistan’s terror apparatus, piece by piece, man by man, dollar by dollar. The strike must be so comprehensive that India’s enemies must wake up each morning wondering: “Will I survive today?”

But until that day arrives, the bloodbath will continue, and India’s restraint will be written not as nobility, but as defeat.