Redlines Redrawn: Operation Sindoor and India’s New Normal, by Maj Gen Bipin Bakshi, Air Mshl Rajesh Kumar, Amb Anil Trigunayat and Brig Akhelesh Bhargava

On 22 April 2025, four terrorists armed with automatic rifles carried out a brutal attack on unsuspecting tourists in the scenic Pahalgam valley of Jammu and Kashmir (J&K). This heinous terrorist attack tragically claimed the lives of 26 tourists, thereby significantly disrupting the surge of tourism in J&K that had grown considerably after the abrogation of Article 370 in 2019. This attack serves as a major setback to J&K’s trajectory towards normalcy and underscores Pakistan’s consistent subversive attempts to disrupt peace in the Union Territory. To the Indian public, the Pahalgam attacks evoked the painful memories of the 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks, wherein Pakistan employed a similar modus operandi to target innocent civilians. However, unlike 26/11, the Pahalgam attack occurred at a time when India’s political leadership had repeatedly affirmed its policy of zero tolerance to terrorism.