Operation Sindoor | India’s choice of targets leaves little wiggle room for Pakistan

India’s non-escalatory precision strikes provide a face-saving opportunity for the generals in Islamabad to defuse the situation

Operation Sindoor launched by India’s armed forces on May 7, seems to have successfully dismantled considerable terrorist infrastructure in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK). 

With the Narendra Modi government giving a free hand to the armed forces to choose when, where, and how to respond to the dastardly Pahalgam terror attack of April 22, the military decision-makers seem to have picked their targets carefully. ‘Altogether, nine sites have been targeted,’ read a press note from the Ministry of Defence. ‘Our actions have been focused, measured, and non-escalatory in nature. No Pakistani military facilities have been targeted. India has demonstrated considerable restraint in selection of targets and method of execution.’

While exact details of the operation and the reaction from Islamabad are unclear, one thing is obvious: old habits die hard. Islamabad continues to thrive on falsehood and deception as it quotes imaginary ‘civilian casualties’ every time targeted firing from across the border takes out terror nests on Pakistani territory. This happened after India’s surgical strike in 2016 that avenged the deaths of 19 troops in Uri by Pakistan-backed terrorists, and the airstrikes deep into Balakot in 2019 after the Pulwama bombing in 2019 which killed 40 Indian soldiers.

It is no different this time with Islamabad’s spinmeisters putting out fabricated stories that speak of women and children being killed by Indian missiles, while claiming that Pakistan’s air defence system and the Pakistan Air Force had shot down Indian fighter jets. Hard evidence of any of this, of course, has yet to emerge — in fact, pictures circulated by Pakistani sources online, purportedly showing wreckage of downed aircraft, turn out to be old and unrelated.

From all accounts, Operation Sindoor used air-launched Scalp long-range cruise missiles, and Hammer guided munition to hit targets in Ahmadpur East and Muridke in Pakistani territory and Kotli and Muzaffarabad in PoK. All of these are warrens of terror identified by Indian and Western intelligence, and home to some of the most dreaded extremist outfits in the world. The Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT) has its largest training centre in Nangal Sahdan, a town near Muridke in the Sheikhupura district. Indian intelligence agencies have long known that Muridke houses a compound not far from Lahore, which is a hub for terrorist operations, particularly for the LeT. It is believed the perpetrators of the 2008 Mumbai terror attacks were indoctrinated here and were given arms training by Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI).

It is no secret either that the Tehra Kalan or Sarjal plant in Pakistan's Narowal district near the international border is the primary source of the Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM)'s terrorist infiltration into Jammu and Kashmir (J&K). It is well camouflaged, cleverly hidden inside a primary health centre in the Sarjal area's Tehra Kalan village. It is possible that the ISI plans to build cross-border tunnels at such centres to facilitate infiltration using the ‘expertise’ of the Palestinian group, Hamas.

The Sawai Nala in Muzaffarabad in the north is another major terror hub very close to the line of control (LoC), and comprises several training camps. Terrorists ‘graduating’ from here head for the LoC under the guidance of ISI handlers who plan and co-ordinate their infiltration bids. Indeed, the perpetrators of the Pahalgam assault, say intelligence sources, had set out on their lethal mission from Muzaffarabad.

Operation Sindoor did not target any Pakistani military facility, and only “focused on dismantling terrorists' infrastructure,” as Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri told the media. This queers the pitch for Islamabad as it desperately seeks a face-saving option. Neither India nor Pakistan stands to benefit from making their strategic assessments more rigid, as that would increase the potential for a misjudgement which, in turn, could change the magnitude of the conflict.

Despite its bluster and belligerence, Islamabad knows that a rapid de-escalation is probably the best, if not the only way to resolve this crisis. Having played most of its cards — the latest at the UN Security Council (UNSC), where Pakistan’s attempt to drum up global opinion against India was coldly turned down by most of the UNSC members — Pakistan faces a complex diplomatic landscape. That the UNSC instead asked Islamabad to come clean on all the terrorist bases on its territory makes it even worse for Pakistan.

So, for the moment, India’s non-escalatory precision strikes actually provide a face-saving opportunity for the generals in Islamabad to defuse the situation.

(Prakash Chandra is former editor of the Indian Defence Review. He writes on aerospace and strategic affairs.)

Disclaimer: The views expressed above are the author's own. They do not necessarily reflect the views of DH.