2 weeks ago
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On the wintertime greeting of January 9, 2026, an arms consignment dropped by a drone from Pakistani Punjab was recovered from a guardant country adjacent the International Border (IB) successful Ghagwal country successful Samba territory of Jammu and Kashmir (J&K). The cache included 2 pistols, 3 magazines, 16 rounds, and a grenade. A packet wrapped successful yellowish portion was recovered connected a watercourse slope and aboriginal opened with the assistance of a weaponry disposal squad. The incidental highlighted Samba’s continuing vulnerability to cross-border drone enactment and the expanding usage of unmanned aerial routes for arms smuggling.
The signifier did not stay confined to a azygous incident. On March 10, Security Forces launched caller hunt operations aft suspicious drone question was reported during the intervening nighttime of March 9 and 10 successful adjoining areas on the International Border successful Samba district. Officials stated that the suspected drone had originated from Pakistan, prompting coordinated operations by the Police and the Border Security Force (BSF) to cheque for imaginable airdropping of weapons oregon narcotics. Taken together, these recurring incidents underscore the evolving quality of cross-border tactics, with drones progressively emerging arsenic a preferred mechanics for sustaining militant logistics, narcotics trafficking and arms proviso networks without requiring nonstop carnal infiltration crossed the border.
Samba territory straight faces Pakistan’s Shakargarh tehsil successful Narowal territory and parts of Sialkot territory successful Punjab province, including the Zafarwal, Chak Amru, and Pasrur belts that person historically figured successful counter-infiltration assessments. This portion forms portion of the strategically delicate “Shakargarh Bulge”, a protruding tract of Pakistani territory betwixt the Ravi and Chenab rivers that has remained militarily important since the 1965 and 1971 wars. The geography connected some sides of the International Border is marked by heavy vegetation, riverine tracts, cultivation belts and seasonal nullahs, making surveillance highly challenging. On the Indian side, villages specified arsenic Supwal stay peculiarly susceptible due to the fact that infiltrators who negociate to transverse the borderline tin rapidly entree the National Highway 1 A and determination deeper into the hinterland.
It was done this broader infiltration portion that, connected the greeting of 14 May 2002, 3 heavy equipped militants infiltrated from Pakistan. After targeting a civilian bus, the attackers entered the Indian Army’s household residential quarters wrong the Kaluchak subject camp, sidesplitting 31 people, including soldiers, women and children. As an eyewitness to the onslaught and its aftermath, I callback that erstwhile the bodies of the militants were searched, pinkish colored cinema tickets from the adjacent Pakistani metropolis of Sialkot, internationally known for its sports goods industry, were reportedly recovered successful their pockets. The item stayed with maine due to the fact that it offered a chilling reminder of the immediacy and proximity of the cross-border infiltration route.
These facts go important to recollect arsenic a twelvemonth aft Operation Sindoor, the larger strategical world remains unchanged: India and Pakistan are acold from immoderate meaningful dialog process, portion the infrastructure of cross-border coercion continues to exist. At a clip erstwhile Pakistani diplomacy got a upwind arsenic it tried to mediate talks betwixt Iran and the US determination is simply a world connected the ground. Arms droppings done drones, the beingness of motorboat pads crossed the Line of Control (LoC) and attempts astatine infiltration stay enduring features of the struggle landscape. This is compounded by the information that connected January 13, Army Chief General Upendra Dwivedi stated that astatine slightest six violent camps remained progressive crossed the LoC and 2 crossed the International Border, with an estimated 100–150 terrorists contiguous successful these facilities. He reiterated that Operation Sindoor against cross-border coercion remained ongoing.
Much similar the past, immoderate large violent onslaught retains the imaginable to rapidly escalate tensions betwixt India and Pakistan. And the astir susceptible remains J&K. The region’s geography, its analyzable demographics and the profoundly embedded quality of militancy marque it unrealistic to presume that the menace tin simply vanish.
Recent operations wrong the portion further underline the persistence of carnal militant infrastructure. On April 6, Pakistani Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) operative Usman alias Khubaib was arrested successful Srinagar district. A time later, 4 much LeT-linked operatives, including Pakistani violent Abdullah on with Mohammad Naqeeb Bhat, Adil Rashid Bhat and Ghulam Mohammad Mir were apprehended. The operation, which began connected March 3, progressive coordinated searches crossed 19 locations successful J&K, Rajasthan and Haryana successful collaboration with cardinal agencies and constabulary units from aggregate states.
The contiguous stalemate with Pakistan does not connote strategical and tactical helplessness. While quantitative metrics and unit figures are important successful assessing the information landscape, they tin sometimes obscure uncomfortable realities that proceed to stay inadequately addressed. The Baisaran onslaught exposed precisely specified vulnerabilities. Located astir 220 kilometres from the Line of Control, the tract of the onslaught raised hard questions internationally astir however Pakistan-backed militants were capable to onslaught truthful heavy wrong the hinterland with specified evident ease.
At different level, the incidental besides revealed the consequences of fragmented organization coordination nether Jammu and Kashmir’s dual powerfulness structure. The tourer installation had been opened by the Tourism Department functioning nether the elected Union Territory administration, portion information clearances and law-and-order responsibilities remained nether the constabulary and information apparatus reporting to the Lieutenant-Governor. The evident lack of seamless coordination betwixt these parallel centres of authorization appeared to make captious gaps successful information appraisal and preparedness. As a result, civilians were exposed successful an country wherever capable protective deployment was absent contempt the prevailing menace situation and the broader past of militant enactment successful the region.
Instead of confronting this evolving world with candour, the governmental communicative successful caller years has often leaned heavy connected claims of “normalcy”. The assertion that the abrogation of Article 370 has fundamentally transformed the information concern risks creating unsafe complacency. It besides undercuts decades of painstaking organization effort by the equipped forces and section policing networks that unneurotic shaped the counter-insurgency architecture successful Jammu and Kashmir.
The reality, however, is acold much complex. In Jammu and Kashmir, it is often hard to neatly abstracted section inaugural from plans conceived and supported crossed the border. Militant operations often look done an enactment betwixt outer absorption and section facilitation, making granular quality indispensable.
The caller Red Fort-related panic module investigation, though nationalist successful its implications and linked to Pakistan-backed networks, erstwhile again demonstrated the decisive value of section quality gathering. In this case, an estranged woman of 1 of the accused reportedly provided the archetypal pb that enabled investigators to determination swiftly and unravel the network.
The occupation is not simply rhetorical. Counter-terrorism successful Jammu and Kashmir has ever depended connected granular section quality and trust-based partnerships with communities. In areas specified arsenic the Pir Panjal region, practice betwixt section populations and information forces erstwhile played a captious relation successful disrupting LeT’s networks and militant question routes into the Kashmir Valley. For a period, these corridors were transformed from militant transit zones into spaces of resilience. But spot is simply a perishable commodity. Once weakened, rebuilding it becomes extraordinarily difficult. A much grounded and sustainable strategy indispensable truthful instrumentality to fundamentals. Technology and militarised responses tin incorporate threats, but they cannot substitute for assemblage trust, organization sensitivity and sustained section engagement.
The existent governance operation successful the Union Territory besides presents its ain complications. With instrumentality and bid straight nether the Lieutenant-Governor’s administration, determination are repeated concerns that section inputs and organization cognition are not ever adequately absorbed into policymaking. Jammu and Kashmir’s realities are excessively layered and analyzable for overly centralised approaches. The organization representation accumulated implicit decades by section stakeholders, constabulary officers and tract operatives cannot easy beryllium replicated done top-down administrative control.
A credible appraisal of the concern requires acknowledging that militancy successful J&K remains an enduring situation alternatively than treating each diminution successful unit arsenic grounds of imperishable resolution. Meaningful investigation should beryllium based connected caller and evolving trendlines, not comparisons with the highest unit of the 1990s oregon aboriginal 2000s.
Ultimately, the astir authentic and strategically invaluable antagonistic coercion strategy emerges not from authoritative narratives alone, but from the lived experiences of radical connected the ground. Sustainable bid cannot beryllium built done rhetorical posturing oregon cautiously managed optics. It requires humility, analytical rigour and a willingness to perceive to hard truths.
India’s semipermanent credibility, some domestically and internationally, volition beryllium not simply connected asserting the beingness of cross-border terrorism, but connected demonstrating a sophisticated, grounded and fact-based knowing of the region’s realities. In a terrain arsenic politically and socially analyzable arsenic Jammu and Kashmir, information is not lone astir unit projection; it is arsenic astir trust, inclusion and organization sensitivity.
At a clip erstwhile the planetary warfare against coercion has progressively taken a backseat to narrowly defined geopolitical and strategical interests, India faces the situation of gathering a much sustainable and credible counter-terrorism model portion simultaneously making a persuasive lawsuit earlier the planetary community. This becomes peculiarly important astatine a clip erstwhile Pakistan’s diplomatic relevance has witnessed a comparative upswing due to the fact that of shifting determination equations, its geography adjoining West Asia, and renewed engagement by large powers driven by strategical and information compulsions. In specified an environment, India’s lawsuit cannot trust solely connected authoritative assertions oregon rhetorical positioning. It requires demonstrating that the concerns emerging from Jammu and Kashmir are rooted successful lived realities experienced by section communities themselves.
For this reason, section stakeholders indispensable beryllium placed beforehand and centre successful some argumentation formulation and planetary outreach. Genuine section voices, including those straight affected by terrorism, militancy and cross-border violence, transportation a legitimacy and authenticity that authoritative authorities narratives unsocial often cannot. In this context, the restoration of statehood to Jammu and Kashmir assumes value not simply arsenic a governmental commitment, but arsenic an important nationalist information imperative. A typical governmental operation with greater section accountability tin amended organization coordination, reconstruct assurance among communities and guarantee that crushed realities are much efficaciously reflected successful governance and information responses.
Granting statehood would besides assistance blunt the argument, often amplified by separatist and Pakistani narratives, that Jammu and Kashmir is being administered straight by a BJP-led Centre without capable section governmental agency, thereby contributing to alienation and disaffection. In a struggle theatre arsenic delicate arsenic Jammu and Kashmir, durable stableness is hard to prolong successful the lack of meaningful governmental information and responsive section institutions.
Ultimately, it is from the crushed itself that the astir effectual and preventive counter-terrorism strategy tin emerge. Local participation, credible quality quality networks, and responsive governmental institutions are indispensable not lone for detecting and disrupting militant ecosystems earlier they construe into violence, but besides for projecting credibility internationally. A counter-terrorism model rooted successful section realities sends the strongest imaginable awesome globally that the combat against coercion is not simply a authorities narrative, but 1 anchored successful the experiences, aspirations and information concerns of the radical astir straight affected by it.
(The writer has authored 2 books connected J&K, including Uncovered look of militancy and Across the Line of Control)
