When Pakistan-backed terrorists created mayhem with their cowardly attack in Pahalgam, it was very clear that India would strike back and strike back very hard. 14 days later, India launched ‘Operation Sindoor’ targeting terrorist sites and military airbases in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Jammu and Kashmir region. Islamabad retaliated by opening fire in Jammu, and the situation was almost heading into the fifth Indo-Pak war, but then came an abrupt ceasefire, which left many perplexed. In this Blog, I will decode the impact of India’s deterrence and the greater implications of the ceasefire.

Damage in Pakistan

On the intervening night of May 7 and 8, when the world was sleeping, Pakistan rose to flame and darkness, as Indian forces wreaked havoc at their ingrained terror infrastructure. Operation Sindoor was largely successful in inflicting substantial damage inside Pakistan. According to the Indian forces, 9 terrorist sites belonging to Lashkar-e-Taiba, Jaish-e-Mohammed, and Hizbul Mujahideen facilities were completely destroyed, and over 100 terrorists were killed. A major highlight of the operation was India being able to bypass the whole Pakistani air-defence system and striking right in the heart of major Pakistani provinces like Punjab and Bahawalpur with utmost precision.

Some major high-profile terrorists were eliminated in the operation. Jaish-e-Mohammed terrorist Masood Azhar himself said 10 of his family members were killed in the operation. In addition, India struck 11 of Pakistan’s airbases, effectively destroying “20% of Islamabad’s air force assets”. According to Pakistan, the attack also resulted in several civilian casualties, however, India has always asserted that they only targeted the military installations and terror bases. But, at the same time, I wouldn’t be very surprised even if there were some civilian casualties, keeping in mind the locations were right in the mainstream cities, and how rooted those scums are in the Pakistani society.

Satellite Imagery showing the extent of damage at Pakistan’s Nur Khan airbase after Operation Sindoor (Photo: NDTV)

Now, I know all sides make extravagant claims during the times of war, and Pakistan would again like to brush off the claims, so I am also putting in some global reportage on the operation. The report by The New York Times said, citing satellite imagery, that while the attacks were widespread, the damage was far more contained than claimed – “and appeared mostly inflicted by India on Pakistani facilities.”

“Where India appears to have had a clear edge is in its targeting of Pakistan’s military facilities and airfields, as the latter stretch of fighting shifted from symbolic strikes and shows of force to attacks on each other’s defence capabilities,” the report said about Operation Sindoor.

Another top US daily, The Washington Post, also reported, citing satellite images and aftermath videos, that Indian strikes damaged “three hangars, two runways and a pair of mobile buildings used by Pakistan’s air force”. The report added that some of the sites hit by India were as deep as “100 miles inside the country”.

On the other hand, the Pakistani side has made hundreds of claims without either presenting any evidence or anyone buying them. From capturing India’s prisoners of war to attacking the Adampur airbase in Punjab, these claims hold as much power as the democracy in Pakistan.

A Reuters report did confirm later that “at least two Indian military aircraft” were shot down by Pakistan using a Chinese-made fighter plane. This also holds significance because the performance of the Chinese fighter jet is being closely watched in the US to get an idea of Beijing’s prowess ahead of any potential showdown over Taiwan or the wider Indo-Pacific.

Notably, India has not made any comments regarding any loss of aircraft so far, raising doubts, and I hope we get a clear answer in the coming future from official channels and not ‘sources’.

Trump’s ceasefire announcement

After strikes and counter-strikes between the two nuclear-armed rivals intensified, Pakistan, out of frustration, carried out rogue and rampant strikes in the Jammu and Poonch regions, killing around 20 of our people and injuring a dozen others. At this point, when India’s operation in Pakistan was largely successful and Islamabad, instead of backing down, was showing its frustration with these cowardly strikes, the situation was heading into a full-blown conflict, the first between the two countries since the 1999 Kargil War.

But, suddenly, on 10th May, at around 3:15 pm, US President Donald Trump (out of nowhere) in a post on Truth Social announced that India and Pakistan have agreed to a “full and immediate ceasefire” after a long night of talks “mediated by the United States”. Hours later, India’s Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri announced the ceasefire. According to India’s version, Pakistan’s DGMO approached New Delhi with a ceasefire proposal, and there is no mention of any US role in it.

Despite being a strategic ally of India, Trump’s behaviour and remarks have often been out of place (Photo: Business Today)

Meanwhile, Trump didn’t just stop there and went on to boast his role in the ceasefire at least 10 times at different events, while adding that the US promised a “lot of trade” to both countries and the ceasefire helped in saving “millions of lives”. He also affirmed that US will help in solving the ‘Kashmir problem’ between India and Pakistan, which, according to him, has been going on for “thousands of years”.

Now, I would not go into word-by-word interpretation of Trump’s claims, because he is the last person whose statement we can take on face value. But, there are two extremely problematic aspects of this episode (I’m not even going into the Kashmir statement). Firstly, it’s very embarrassing that a foreign leader is the first person who announced a ceasefire deal reached by us, that too when just two days back, his deputy Vance had told the media that the US won’t interfere in the issue.

Secondly, the way Trump has hyphenated India and Pakistan is beyond baffling. I mean, it’s not as if the two countries woke up one day and out of boredom started fighting each other. Pakistan, a rogue failed terror state, carried out a cowardly and brutal massacre of our people, and in response, we carried out the operation. Yes, Trump did condemn the incident and affirmed support to India, but he has failed to condemn and name Pakistan even once, all this after all the flattering ‘friendship’ he boasts with Prime Minister Modi.

There are many theories regarding why the US got involved in the conflict. The most potent reasoning is that after India struck the Nur Khan airbase, which is near the nuclear warheads of Pakistan, Washington got worried about wider escalation between the two nuclear-armed rivals and decided to intervene. Another reason pointed out by some experts is that after Pakistan reportedly struck Indian aircraft, the US was sceptical of the world watching the prowess of China-made defence systems, and decided to close the episode as soon as possible.

Where the episode leaves India globally

Let’s have one thing clear: Operation Sindoor was largely successful in its aim, targeting Pakistani air bases and terror camps, and creating a strong deterrent for the future. If in the surgical strikes (2016), India attacked inside the PoK region, in the airstrikes (2019) India went inside the international boundary, this time India struck even deeper right in the heart of Pakistan, and showed that next time any such misadventure is carried out by the rogue neighbour, the response will be stronger and much more damaging for both the terrorists as well the government sponsoring them. PM Modi, in his speech, has also strongly asserted that “blood and water can’t flow together” and gave a different spin to his old famous remark, “this is not the era of war, but neither of terrorism”.

But, having said that, I think the episode didn’t play out very well for us on the diplomatic front. As many have already pointed out, while some countries openly came in Pakistan’s support (hardliners like Turkey and Azerbaijan), NO country openly supported India while condemning Pakistan (though many condemned the Pahalgam incident). The rest of the damage was done by our stupid media, which was running all imaginative and baseless nonsense of India invading Karachi and Islamabad. This is at a time when some of our best diplomats, like Doraiswamy and VM Kwatra, were giving strong responses on foreign media channels, which could and should have been given more coverage in India. Also, it would’ve been better had the briefings by the armed forces and statements by Foreign Minister Jaishankar come earlier.

It is a result of all this that now the government has sent all-party delegations to multiple nations to expose Pakistan’s terror network, because it hasn’t been able to do so diplomatically over the last 3-4 weeks. Though the mutual consensus between the parties is breaking and politics has started, that discussion is for some other day. At the conclusion, I would just like to salute our armed forces after the great Operation Sindoor, and stress the need to increase our outlay towards defence with more focus on modern equipment and AI warfare, keeping in mind our rogue neighbours all around.

JAI HIND