Another attack. Another set of funerals. Twenty-six people — tourists and two young Indian Army officers — were gunned down in cold blood in Pahalgam, Jammu and Kashmir. This wasn’t a random act of violence. It was a calibrated message from Rawalpindi, scripted by the ISI and signed in blood by Pakistan-sponsored terrorists. And they’re not even pretending anymore. Pakistan’s Defence Minister, Khawaja Asif, blamed “internal rebellion” in India, justifying terrorism by invoking the Hindutva bogeyman. The same tired script: train the killers, deny involvement, blame India, play victim. Rinse, repeat. As the Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS), chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, deliberates a response, mere condemnation won’t cut it. Petitions to the international community won’t either. India needs action — swift, clear, and punishing. We’ve been here before. After Pulwama in 2019, India struck Balakot. That airstrike sent a message: safe havens aren’t safe. Pakistan was rattled — its denials laughable, its military caught off guard. Yet here we are again. More Indian blood spilled. The lesson? One Balakot isn’t enough. India needs a doctrine of sustained deterrence. Airstrikes targeting ISI-controlled training camps, logistical hubs, and command centres — even those shielded by civilians — must be back on the table. Let Pakistan face the moral dilemma it gleefully exports to us: civilian risk as camouflage for jihad. But kinetic strikes alone won’t suffice. It’s time to widen the toolbox. The CCS must consider suspending the Indus Waters Treaty — a Cold War relic India has honoured far longer than reason demands. Why continue sharing lifelines with a state that lives off exporting terror? India must also choke the soft underbelly. Freeze all visa processing — student or otherwise. Cut trade. Scrap backchannel cricket diplomacy and sever cultural ties.
These symbolic gestures may matter to countries that understand responsibility, but not to Islamabad’s brass, nor to ordinary Pakistanis, who must start feeling the cost of their state’s actions. And then there’s China — ever the opportunistic bystander. Its condemnation of the Pahalgam massacre came a day late, wrapped in strategic ambiguity. It urged “checking facts” before blaming anyone — a familiar deflection tactic. This, from the same country that shielded Masood Azhar at the UN. China and Pakistan are two ends of the same fuse. One funds and vetoes, the other trains and detonates. Their goal is clear: destabilize India, one blast at a time. But Beijing understands power, not protest. Let it watch as India finally responds with strength. Let it calculate the cost of standing behind a rogue, terror-exporting partner. If China lit the fire, it should feel the heat too. “Strategic restraint” brought us here. Every attack we absorbed without response made Pakistan bolder. Every diplomatic note we filed gave them time to reload. The global mood has changed. Israel retaliates within hours. The U.S. crosses borders to drone threats. Even Russia, for all its baggage, doesn’t wait for UN permission slips. India must not be the last restraint-driven democracy. The world — if anything — is waiting to back a country that stands up for itself, militarily and morally. How many more massacres before we stop holding back? The blood spilled in Pahalgam demands more than mourning. It demands retribution — strategic, sustained, unapologetic. This isn’t revenge. This is clarity. India cannot coexist with a neighbour that wages war by proxy. Nor can it pretend China’s complicity is neutral. Let Pahalgam be the day India stopped absorbing pain — and started inflicting consequences. Let it be the day Pakistan realized it cannot bleed India without bleeding itself. Let China watch.